I could get really angry...

In fact, I get very angry every time I click on someone's link or article and find myself reading something fanatical and furious about politics in this country, about the budget crisis, about who's the greediest or most corrupt or least competent person in Washington, who should or shouldn't run our country, when the war should end, why the war shouldn't end, or any number of similarly divisive topics.

I am saddened because we are talking so much about which newscasters we like or don't like, whose immigration policies make our country safer, and so little about the increasing number of homeless, poor, and hungry right here within our borders.

I groan inwardly because there is so little information broadcast anymore about the situation in Japan or Joplin, Missouri, or New Orleans and Mississippi after the tragedies that have befallen those  countries and communities, or the ongoing struggle for food and water in Iraq following the war there, or sex-trafficked girls and boys in our own nation. We talk more about the politicians who live in a world all their own than the people they have been elected to represent and protect who live in a world that is collapsing around them, around us.

It discourages me every time I see that the men and women who vehemently declare that this is a Christian nation that we have to take back for God are the same ones who declare that asking those who have more money than they could possible spend in three lifetimes to give some of their wealth to feed and provide medical care for those who have nothing is a form of socialism that will endanger capitalism and its benefits to the world. The same capitalism, mind you, that encouraged us to buy homes, cars, clothes, and other stuff we couldn't afford and didn't need. The same capitalism that encouraged us to drive cars that get fewer than ten miles to the gallon and thumb our noses at water, electricity, oil, and environmental conservation. The same capitalism that says that teachers' unions are based solely on greed and unmerited summers off but has no problem with paying multi-million dollar bonuses to the same folks who led our nation down the path to economic collapse.

I could get really angry. And sometimes I do.


But when my blood pressure returns to normal, when my heartrate returns to normal, I lift my eyes towards heaven, and pray for wisdom, courage, and the determination to press on for those who are working for freedom, justice, and peace. I pray for those whose conversations, facebook links, and blog posts seem more interested in fomenting bigotry, sarcasm, and insults than in reasoned solutions and forgiveness, compromise, and (gasp) love. I pray for those who are suffering through isolation, depression, ostracism, rejection, unemployment, lack of medical coverage, and bankruptcy as a result of decisions made by politicians, economic advisors, church leaders, and company presidents - people who will probably never be directly affected by the decisions they are making.

Forgive them, Abba Father, for they do not know what they are doing; they have no idea the effect that their words, decisions, and actions have on those who read their words, hear their rants, and feel the pain that results from their behavior.


Forgive us, Amma Mother, for we know that what we are doing is destroying the world we live in, killing innocent people, and destroying the lives of people who, like us, were created in your image, but we are too selfish to change our ways and make better, more loving, more merciful, more responsible decisions.

Forgive me, Wisdom-Giver, because I have done all of the above and more. I too have been selfish, vindictive, vengeful, sarcastic, demanding, greedy, insulting, and I knew exactly what I was doing but was too self-centered to care enough to make other choices. Please grant me the wisdom to take long, hard, and loving looks at myself and be truthful about what I see within me. Help me to be willing to change my ways so that I can live out your love for and in the world. Help me to see that there is so much more I can do, more I need to do, and more I must do to release my anger, replace it with your love, and live my life so that those to whom love is a stranger will find in me a generous friend.