Things We Never Do

So I was sitting in church this weekend, and was expecting to just stroll in, hear a sermon, and sing a couple songs. The usual. Instead, it was a little different. Instead of the usual sermon, we had some time for group prayer, praying for some of the different people affected by the NIU Valentine's Day Massacre.

I'm not really a fan of group prayer, in general, as I'm not particularly fond of being told what to pray for, regardless of whether or not I agree with the sentiment. And when I don't agree with what I am asked to pray, then I just sort of get into a funk. And I wasn't very excited to pray for the people involved in the the NIU shootings. It wasn't that I didn't feel for the victims' families. What struck me was that we only care when it hits home. And that left me with a funny feeling. I didn't know any of the NIU folks any better than I know anyone who got blown up in Afghanistan, anyone who got run over in Maryland, or anyone who was burned alive in Kenya. So I wasn't particularly invested in the NIU situation. And it just struck me that we hadn't done anything in particular to note the tribal warfare that's been ongoing in Kenya for weeks now, or much else around the world, unless there was a reason for it. And that struck me as being sort of odd.

I wasn't in the most spiritual of states for the prayer time, so I just tried to listen. And it was interesting. There were more than a couple people who were praying for the families of the shooter. I had seen the tearful father of the shooter decline to answer questions, and I felt bad for him, for sure. I thought that it was a very reasonable prayer. And I wondered about something related, in a tangential way. I wondered about whether anyone in the Christian world ever prayed for the families of Islamic suicide bombers, like the one that just blew up in Baghdad a few moments ago. I know that I hadn't. I think that I'd be more likely to pray for a fiery end to radical Islam than I would be to pray for the siblings of suicide bombers.

So I came to the question of why we seemed to get into very predictable patterns for prayer. And whether that was good. It seemed to be related to the very predictable patterns for thought that most people have. I've talked about people liking things that are similar to themselves. I think that people end up praying for things that they like, rather than things that are what God likes. We like that people like us are comforted. And I'm cool with that. But we tend to not even consider those who are not like us. I'm not so sure that's kosher.

...Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

I like the Lord's Prayer. It seems to be simple enough.

-Chairman