This guest post is by Ian Simkins.
For the times we have been too distracted to feel deeply and respond fully to injustice.
O LORD, FORGIVE US
For the times our own hearts fill with hatred and malice for those who inflict pain.
O LORD, FORGIVE US
For the times we have failed to feel fully the breaking of your own heart.
O LORD, FORGIVE US
For the ways we have not invited you into our own suffering.
O LORD, FORGIVE US
For the ways we have caused you and others pain.
O LORD, FORGIVE US
God of comfort, grant us peace: Our hearts are broken, our souls heavy. Our sorrow is a weight around our necks–sinking our feet deep into the mire of despair. Deliver those buried this moment under a burden of misery.
God of justice, grant us hope: We proclaim that Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, yet we confess that the sin and brokenness we see around us is a bitter reminder of a Kingdom not yet fully come. May we be agents of your justice in every crack and crevice of our lives.
God of power, grant us strength: We know that the same force that spoke the universe into existence is alive in each of us, yet our spirits are so very weary. How long, oh Lord, must communities be torn and fractured by senseless violence? How we are desperate for your vitality and courage.
God of passion, grant us wisdom: We are a tangle of emotions from rage to anguish. We long for your Holy Spirit to guide our hearts to right responses. May our hearts break for the things that break yours. May we be filled with anger that submits to your supremacy. May we find the wisdom necessary to align passions with yours in order to navigate these brutal waters.
God of redemption, grant us life: You alone, O God, are the source of life. Yet our narratives bleed crimson with brutality and death. We need new songs whispered into our ears, new rhythms to pound in our chests, so that we may join in the chorus of new life.
God of love–you open our eyes to the suffering all around us.
AND WE WILL SEE
God of justice–you open our ears to those who cry out in pain.
AND WE WILL HEAR
God of healing–you open our hearts to expose our own pain and the pain of the world.
AND WE WILL BEAR IT TOGETHER
About Ian Simkins
Ian originally hails from Detroit, Michigan as the oldest of seven children and moved to Chicagoland in 2003 to study at Judson University in Elgin, IL. Since that time he has spoken domestically and abroad, toured the U.S., worked with different justice ministries, taught, written, learned to crochet, started two organizations called, “Beauty in the Common” and “The Common Year,” and currently pastors just outside Chicago.
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