Saturday, August 23, 2025

Dear God,

Instead of being afraid or resistant of and to other religions, political persuasions and cultures, we can receive them as teachers.  We can learn from one another.  

As I traveled in the world, I have been surprised and blessed to encounter people whose lives are different from my own.  As a Christian, I was moved by the Muslim call to prayer five times a day.  When I heard their call, I prayed to my own God who is mystery to us all.  When I stepped onto a crowded bus in Moscow, an elderly lady stood and insisted I take her seat.  Someone explained that is their way of hospitality.  Now that I am more cognizant of others who are visiting my country, I try to do a gesture of kindness. One day as I was ranting about the president who I simply cannot abide because of his target of vulnerable people, someone on the "other" side suggested I pray for him.  Although it is difficult to say his name, I do pray daily for political leaders, all of them.

I realize I do not have the only word for the way things should be.  My own thoughts, faith, culture, political understanding and practices are limited.  If I rigidly hold them as the only way, then my world view along with others the same as me, will always remain small, prejudiced and unbending. At the end of the day, that is not what I want at all.

O God,

thank you

for sending me

to people,

places, traditions,

cultures and 

ways of being

different from

my own.

Thank you

for sending 

other teachers.

Open me

to the realities

of all

who have something

to contribute

to the world.

Make me pliable

to all

the truths

that set people free.

Yours, Andrea