A Prayer for Election Day
Today I will be spending the day in silence, prayer and reflection seeking the enduring peace of Christ as my soul seems to be at unrest just as much as the world seems to be in these days.
I began to write a prayer to share with you. However, when my dear friend and colleague, Rev. Dave Long-Higgins (a gifted writer and poet), sent me the following prayer he wrote, I knew there was nothing more I could add to his eloquent words and message.
With his permission I share it with you. Friends, may this be our prayer today and in the days to come.
Blessings, Rev. Shana Johnson
ISC Conference Minister
A Prayer for Election Day
written by Rev. Dave Long-Higgins
O Love,
The world carries a weight
As it waits and wonders,
Pondering which position
Humanity’s heart will lean.
There is a tension
As votes cast about
Voicing a view of life
Framed in opposites
Caricatures brought to life
In brutalities too many
And too frequent to count.
But You, O Love,
Will not be divided
By a narrowness of spirit
Loving itself more than You.
You are the great unity
Of creation’s longing
The wholeness of heart
By which the world
Is constantly remade.
So let Your energy
Be the mending grace
Of humanity’s deepest longing.
Let it rise up
In resurrection power
Surprising the statistics
Which settle for spiritual smallness
Unworthy and unable
To conceive the creation
Of a world made new
Already begun by You.
So lighten the burden
Born by betrayals of the love
For which all life is birthed.
By grace unimaginable
Stir humanity’s heart
With strong strokes
Of committed compassion
Siding with the suffering
For which Your Christ
Continually comes,
And constantly heals.
Yes, Love,
Let this heart and mind
Of Thee be in me
And thus find its way
Again and again
Into the life of this weighty world