When I am awake at night, I sometimes think my way through what we call the Lord’s or the Disciple’s Prayer or the Kingdom Prayer.
That may sound like rote praying, but it’s far from that. I’ve found that the prayer reverberates inside me in a dynamic way, almost as though it were in dialogue with me.
Over the years, I’ve experienced each of the phrases taking on different and deeper meanings, depending on my circumstances.
The prayer speaks to me.
Lately, I’ve been focused on “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
It's a helpful backdrop for concern, stress, anxiety in these difficult times.
I think everybody in North America, as well as our friends in places like Ethiopia & Guatemala & Uganda, is feeling the pain.
- There is COVID-19 and now over 1 million deaths.
- There is isolation and economic disaster.
- There is racism and violence, tearing us apart.
For many, in the US, but also affecting us here in Canada, is the upcoming US election. Here in Canada, we have our own struggles with our minority government. There is this fear that the re-election of Donald Trump will scuttle the system of government—that authoritarian lawlessness will take over [There is plenty of that kind of government throughout Africa, but I never, until recently, imagined that it was possible in North America.]
Trump supporters fear something else just as much—the ultimate triumph of secularism and globalism, and the transformation of the USA into a place they don’t recognize.
With such polarized fears, this is a hard place and a hard time. In the next few weeks before the election—and perhaps after the election, as well...
- We will see constant appeals to fear.
- We will hear lies and personal attacks.
There is a sense for many that the USA is coming apart.
When I pray, “your kingdom come,” I’m imagining a timeline that supersedes our agony. I’m imagining God bringing a government of love that lasts forever.
This election turmoil hardly figures in the timeline of God’s plans. He has greater ends in mind. And he, not we, will bring them about.
It’s not up to us.
We ask him.
This doesn’t diminish the stakes of the election, but it reminds me that something far greater, and far better, is at play—and is in God’s hands.
Cradled in that prayer, I can sleep.
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