Friday, January 15, 2021

Dear God,

Help me hear the cries of the poor, the forgotten, the diminished, the anxious and the lost.  Help me to live life with an attentive ear to others.  

It is so easy to live life on my own terms doing what I want and will.  I can keep myself comfortable by ignoring the woes of hurting people.  I can live in a cocoon of my own making and take no responsibility for desperate people.  But I don't want to.  I want to feel the pain of suffering!  

A few days ago when the plane crashed just after takeoff from Jakarta and the world knew it, I wept.  When terrorists rampaged through the capitol of the United States I wept.  When earthquakes, storms, natural disasters were reported, I wept.  This does not make me anything special, for I am not.  What it does mean is this:  You created me to believe that all the world is my family.  What hurts one hurts another.   On the other hand, when one celebrates all can celebrate.

Teach us

the meaning

of family,

O God.

Teach us

to love

and feel

the suffering

of pained people.

Help us

move beyond feeling

to helping,

loving, giving

and serving.

Love, Andrea