As soon as the news became apparent, the shooting of innocent children and staff at a school not far from Guideposts headquarters, a friend emailed me and said flat-out, “I don’t know how to pray through this. It feels so terrible. I can’t even find the words.”
Didn’t I know the feeling. Don’t we all. All I could say in my response is that helplessness, that sense of desperation and inadequacy, when you feel at the very end of your rope and have no words to express your sorrow, rage and bewilderment—it is the real place of prayer. It is that Christ-in-Gethsemane moment, that time of storming the heavens and asking God, How? Why? Please, no!
I have found when I am at my most helpless, my most insecure, that I am willing to accept heavenly help. Come quickly, I pray in my impatience. It does come—that measure of peace and understanding—it comes in time and it has helped me know that inadequacy is a fruitful start of prayer.
So in our sense of helplessness, we pray through a tragedy like this. Lord, help the grieving, help the suffering. Be with them in their terrible loss. Be with us. Prayer is our first response, the only adequate response.
But there’s something else I’ve also seen in this time of prayer. I noticed it at church on Sunday. The names of all the victims were read when we as a congregation were praying. I listened to them with my eyes closed, picturing those poor grieving parents, until I heard the name of the gunman—victim and assailant—read aloud.
Must we pray for him too? I wondered. And almost in the same breath I could hear Jesus’ words, “Pray for our enemies.” Even those who commit incomprehensible evil. We’re all in this together, the good and the bad. We all need God’s grace. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, we prayed later, saying the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
May we be delivered. All of us. May we be made ready to welcome the Prince of Peace. Come quickly, Lord, come quickly.
