How long, O Lord, will you forget us?<\/p>\n
How long will you turn your face away?<\/p>\n
How long will your silence be deafening;<\/p>\n
Your presence imperceivable?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We are wasting away<\/p>\n
consumed by corruption,<\/p>\n
manipulation,<\/p>\n
greed,<\/p>\n
and partisan politics.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Democrats sit crouched,<\/p>\n
ready to pounce on Republicans.<\/p>\n
Republicans stand armed ready to shoot<\/p>\n
whoever stands in their way.<\/p>\n
Progressive Christians condemn<\/p>\n
conservative Christians<\/p>\n
condemn progressive Christians…<\/p>\n
Where everyone’s a psychic,<\/p>\n
predicting with certainty what<\/p>\n
the future holds<\/p>\n
if this person<\/p>\n
or that person<\/p>\n
sits in that seat.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Who are we, really?<\/p>\n
Vapors.<\/p>\n
Grasshoppers.<\/p>\n
Walking dead.<\/p>\n
Specks of dust<\/p>\n
in the vastness of eternity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yet we think we are central,<\/p>\n
in this land of the free and brave.<\/p>\n
We hold the weaker captive<\/p>\n
and neglect the other.<\/p>\n
We trample the earth,<\/p>\n
subduing it and<\/p>\n
all who inhabit it.<\/p>\n
We seek to build our kingdom come<\/p>\n
As our will is done.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our hammers of fear<\/p>\n
pound relentlessly<\/p>\n
forging fortresses<\/p>\n
of anger and hate,<\/p>\n
while chisels shave off<\/p>\n
compassion,<\/p>\n
empathy,<\/p>\n
generosity,<\/p>\n
grace.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our systems of power are<\/p>\n
grotesque,<\/p>\n
broken.<\/p>\n
Individually<\/p>\n
we are the same<\/p>\n
for our collective within is<\/p>\n
reflected in the without.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Freedom is but a catch phrase<\/p>\n
in this land<\/p>\n
that is bound in<\/p>\n
shackles of shame.<\/p>\n
We cannot gnaw,<\/p>\n
shake,<\/p>\n
or even vote our way out of them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We can only turn<\/p>\n
to You, O Lord.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You who shaped us from<\/p>\n
dirt and eternal waters<\/p>\n
and set us upon wobbly legs<\/p>\n
to walk in the Way<\/p>\n
through the darkness of the womb<\/p>\n
and then again through the tomb.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There is but one Way<\/p>\n
for us to go,<\/p>\n
one Person we are to follow,<\/p>\n
one place we are to put our hope and trust.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You alone are trustworthy,<\/p>\n
faithful,<\/p>\n
good.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You alone hold all<\/p>\n
the specks of dust in your hands<\/p>\n
and keep the waters flowing free and true.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You alone invite us into the river<\/p>\n
of Grace<\/p>\n
which carries us<\/p>\n
into the depths of You.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Help us to say Yes<\/p>\n
to your invitation<\/p>\n
and in doing so,<\/p>\n
discover,<\/p>\n
in the collective flow of Eternity,<\/p>\n
we are indeed<\/p>\n
more powerful<\/p>\n
then all the earthly kingdoms<\/p>\n
and political parties<\/p>\n
and power structures<\/p>\n
combined.<\/p>\n
Help us to know<\/p>\n
in that flow<\/p>\n
we are already free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How long, O Lord, will you forget us? How long will you turn your face away? How long will your silence be deafening; Your presence imperceivable? We are wasting away consumed by corruption, manipulation, greed, and partisan politics. Democrats sit crouched, ready to pounce on Republicans. Republicans stand armed ready to shoot whoever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1916,1741,177,758,1917],"class_list":["post-26964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-election-day","tag-grace","tag-hope","tag-politics","tag-psalms","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26964"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26969,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26964\/revisions\/26969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}