A Reflection and Prayer after Days of Violence in Our Country

Bob Guffey
Sep 20
4 min read

Sometimes the world crashes in and all you can do is try to hold on and pray, especially when you are the human being afflicted by the world crashing around you, upon you. Holding on and praying do not negate the need to answer God’s call to engage, of course, to apply all you are against the damage done by the powers of nature or the evil done by the powers of this world, especially for those of us near the locus of the event or those who care from a distance. In crises, we are called to act swiftly. Often, though there is a limit to what any of us, and especially we type-A, get-it-done, North Americans can do, but to be present with love and care, to be living reminders of hope.

Like the Lord Jesus who prayed without ceasing, for example, constantly seeking his Father’s will, when feeding the multitudes and healing, when facing persecution, betrayal and death, and when experiencing God's absence, those who want to follow Jesus should pray. Whether in the eye of the storm ourselves or walking beside others who have been crushed by it, prayer, open honest prayer, can be a bridge to our true pain and, over time, a source of connection with God who is always present, though sometimes silent. Prayer can become like a sacred connection with the One who bears all and will heal and strengthen us over time.

As we go through another season of crises in our world, I felt led to share this prayer written in a time of crises brought on by violence and evil intent. It is a prayer Angie and I wrote together in January 2021, in response to the violence in Washington, DC, on January 6, and to which I felt led to return to last Sunday, after the terrible assassination of a young political leader in Utah.

I share this prayer, and others in the past, because the hurt and hope expressed in them is still true for me. My hope in doing so is that there might be a word or phrase that could connect to your own hurt or hope or need to pray.

I share prayers like this one, too, because I condemn all violence perpetuated by any human being against another. All life is a gift from God. All people are created by God, in the image of God. We were born into this world by the mercy of God. The Gospel of John tells us that God loves this world so very much God comes in Christ to die that we might live fully as God intended us to before the creation of the world. In the mystery of Christ’s death, I believe God dramatically swept away all that stood in the way of the possibility that human beings experiencing God in fullness. My evangelical past was strong in reminding me of the power of sin and God's intervention that I and all human beings might experience the mercy and forgiveness of God.

One aspect of that, I think is that in the mystery of the cross, God absorbed all the violence ever perpetuated by human beings – past, present, and future – and said, No more. In our conversion to God’s way, we are called to join the journey to become the true children of God. We are called on to be those who hear the call of God to declare, No more, to violence and all the ways and sins of this world which betray God’s love, which maim and destroy human life.

I am praying for the insight and courage to live this way each day, too. I am praying God will make of us the beloved community of those who pray unceasingly to grow more like Christ through the grace of God, that we are the people who trust God and show up, Christ-in-us, for the healing of the world.

Humbly offered,

Bob Guffey

Prayer for the People after Violence

O God,

Simply waking up to each day has the potential to remind us of the gift from you life is.

We survey our days and discover clues from the Holy Spirit pointing us toward your goodness manifest in our lives and in our world.

We feel gratitude for the loveliness and grandeur of nature.

We sense wonder in the faces of our children, and we see promise in them, too.

We pray for your will to be done, often hoping that this day will be the day when all will be well, and your love will overcome the ugliness in this world for the final time.

But... this week... we were reminded again of how fragile our lives and our world can be.

We were reminded with great force of the anger and destructive power that comes from hatred, a power that can overtake us, wound us, and make us question our assumptions about the world and the intentions of others and just what it is going to take to learn to live together in peace, respect and unity.

O Lord, we plead for your holy intervention in the affairs of persons, families, and nations.

We ask for you to show up and use your powerful presence to make over our prejudices, heal our wounds and overthrow all in every human being that leads to malice.

O Lord, forgive us our sins, please, and transform us into your fearless ambassadors, as your compassionate witnesses.

Push forward our conversion into being more like Christ for the world.

Give us the Holy Spirit indwelling within to give us the courage to stand for compassion, and mercy, righteousness and justice.

Make us familiar companions with the kind of sacrifice, compassion and selflessness we see in your Son, who has taught us to say…

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by your name

Your kingdom done, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

-Robert and Angela Guffey