Frequently, almost every day, my inbox includes an e-mail from my uncle. Inevitably, this is a forwarded complaint about some aspect of life in the US: "reported threats" to Social Security, Medicare, and/or religious freedom; the dangers of the "liberal media"; the problems in our public schools. While these may be legitimate concerns, I wonder if mass e-mail is the most effective means for Christians deal with these issues.
Consider the following excerpt from Karl Barth's prayer number twenty-two.
Bless what comes to pass in this church and in the other churches and communities that are now still separated from us, that it may be a testimony to your name, your kingdom and your will! Reign also over all of the various concerns of the government authorities, administrations, and courts here and all over the world! Strengthen the teachers in consideration of their high task for the growing generation; the people who write newspapers, conscious of their grave responsibility for the public opinion they influence; the doctors and nurses, for genuine attentiveness to the needs of those in their care! Substitute your comfort, your counsel, and your help for all that would accuse the many lonely, poor, sick, and confused among us! And let your mercy be apparent and powerful to all who are here in this house, along with their families!
We place ourselves and all that we lack and that the world requires in your hands. Our hope is in you. We trust in you. You have never let your people be put to shame, whenever they earnestly called on you. What you have begun, you will surely finish. Amen.
Personally, I'll go with the power of prayer over the power of e-mail complaint every time. How about you; which do you choose?
No comments:
Post a Comment