By Leslie Leyland Fields
We have a new president. We have much work ahead of us as a nation, as a Church. We will not move forward without looking behind. May these words of confession bring healing to us all.
*Let us have compassion for one another, for we have all suffered through an unprecedented and interminable season of scandals, corruption, and assaults. We are united in our disappointments and disillusionment with politics.
*Let us acknowledge there is no one righteous, no, not one. We have all gone astray, we have all turned each one to his own way.
*Let us confess our own complicity in the uncivil discourse that has polluted our political process and invaded our homes.
*Let us confess to harboring negative thoughts toward others; Let us ask forgiveness for all the times we have believed ourselves more intelligent, more informed, more faithful than those who have voted differently than us.
*Let us admit that at times we have seen others, even family members and neighbors as a kind of enemy, and we have not loved them.
*Let us repent of caring more about the advancement of the government of this world than the advancement of the kingdom of God.
*Let us confess we have given in to fear rather than faith, allowing ourselves to believe doomsday rhetoric rather than standing firmly on our sovereign God, who rules the hearts of princes, whose counsel and purposes stand firm.
*Let us attest that we have been more passive than we ought, looking to our government and politicians to do the good that we ourselves could do in our own neighborhoods and communities.
*Let us believe that whatever course of action we chose on election day, that all have wrestled with their conscience, and all have done their best to seek God and act with integrity.
*Let us remember that God calls all of us to unity in diversity, that the body of Christ itself is composed of vastly different members, all of whom are needed for the body to be healthy and whole.
*Let us recognize we share a common enemy and it is not a political party, a government or a person. Our true enemy is sin and death, and Jesus decisively won that battle 2,000 years ago.
*Let us recommit ourselves to upholding the law and to praying for those in authority over us, for they are God’s representatives, whether they know God or not.
*Let us remember that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not persecution or famine or sword or poverty or presidents, nor demons nor all the powers of hell, nor anything else in all creation.
For the Kingdom is His,
the Power is His
the Glory is His
Forever, world and time without end,
Amen.
Leslie Leyland Fields is the author of ten books, her most recent is Crossing the Waters: Following Jesus through the Storms, the Fish, the Doubt and the Seas. She speaks, teaches and leads writing workshops around the country, and is the founder of the Harvester Island Wilderness Workshop. (Her 2017 co-teacher is Phillip Yancey; Ann Voskamp will help lead in 2018.) She lives in Kodiak, Alaska, and commercial salmon fishes every summer with her husband and six children. She blogs weekly about culture, faith and her Alaskan life here, where this prayer first appeared.
