Valley Rise Up: I'm Praying for the President

Thursday, March 18, 2010

I'm Praying for the President

I confess to all kinds of hypocrisy: I'm a bundle of contradictions. And it's a poor reflection on my faith and patriotism that I prayed for President George W. Bush just once or twice during his eight years in office. I could have and should have been more courageous in my prayers. I wasn't.

That out of the way, I am praying - zealously, hourly, HARD - for President Barak Obama this week. I want him to succeed in pushing passage of a health care reform bill. It's not everything I want in terms of reform and fairness and justice for all. But it's a start: a politcally negotiated, passionately pursued start. I want the President to stand in front of the country in the next few days and remind us what we can do - together. Then I want him to claim that victory for us. All of us.

And then, that vote behind us, I want him to focus his intense intellect and prophetic heart and political genius on Palestine, on Israel, on Jerusalem. I want him to tell the Israelis and the Palestinians that he's President of a united country - a country of deep divisions that is nonetheless united around its commitment to peace with justice in the Holy Land. Two viable states within the internationally recognized 1967 borders. A Jerusalem that is shared by two peoples, their capitals, and international investment in the Old City. If Americans can tackle health care, if we can advance reform at home, we can build a strong consensus around our shared interest in a peaceful Middle East and a shared Holy Land. Two viable states with a real chance at thriving side by side.

I'm praying for the President - because my community will be so much better, so much wiser, so much stronger if he succeeds. I'm praying for the President - because the political morass in Washington threatens to cripple my country for my kids and their kids. I'm praying for the President - because the conflict in Jerusalem this week threatens much, much more. I'm praying for President Barak Obama - because it's time for us, as Americans, to believe in something again. Justice. Opportunity. Peace. Humankind.

He's no messiah. That's not the point. He represents my hopes, my friends' hopes, my family's hopes. He's struggling to forge a new kind of politics that saves us from the destructive cynicsim that incapicates a country. I don't want to live in an incapacitated country any more.

So Glenn Beck says Sunday's health care vote is an affront to God. I'm not praying for Glenn Beck this weekend. I'm praying for change. I'm praying for America. I'm praying for all those folks without health insurance. I'm praying for my President and our future.

Today, like all days, is sacred and strange; and your life, like every other life, is sacred gift and holy opportunity. I hope you're finding ways to receive and cherish this gift: even and especially now, even and especially as unnerving crises shake communities, nations, neighborhoods to the core. If this blog can help you discern the gift, lean into beloved community, share the gift in a circle of celebration and resistance, I'm grateful for the connection. If it can help you build a stronger network of hope with friends and allies, so much the better.

In the shadow of a thousand empires, our friends have boldly proclaimed it. Perfect love casts out fear. Speaking truth to power, protesting slavery, deconstructing nuclear weapons, our friends have boldly proclaimed it. Perfect love casts out fear. Welcoming weary refugees, organizing with the poorest among us, our friends have boldly proclaimed it. Perfect love casts out fear. Making amends for sexism, making amends for homophobia, making amends for anti-Semitism and colonialism, our friends have boldly proclaimed it. Perfect love casts out fear.

WELCOME to VALLEY RISE UP: a blog exploring faith and wonder, ethics and passion. If you find something helpful here, anything helpful here, I hope you'll take it along and make it work for you. More than anything else, I see myself as a spiritual guide and mentor for seekers and believers. In a beautiful and befuddling world, faith offers courage, resilience and tenderness. At least it does for me. On the side, I love to read and write poetry, and I've written a number of hymns and songs as well. In VALLEY RISE UP, I try to keep the conversation alive, exploring grace, peacemaking, human yearning and hope.

"If the inner life is great," said Meister Eckhart 800 years ago, "the outer life will never be puny." Eckhart and others talk about two dimensions in prayer: the horizontal (connecting us in lovingkindness to others) and the vertical (uniting us in love with the Source of all that is and will be). The two intersect in stillness, in reflection, in meditation, in prayer. And this kind of practice is cultivated, tended like a garden, through daily experience and circles of support. There are so many ways into a practice of prayer. For some of us, silence is the key; for others, it's movement, yoga, tai chi, qi gong. The key seems to be discipline, and steady practice. It's a wild and noisy world out there, so find a place and time to step aside and pray. And do it often.

THOMAS MERTON'S PRAYER

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

I'm Praying for the President

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