Some thoughts in the wake of another mass shooting:

It seems like every time there is a trauma or tragedy, our public leaders are quick to offer "thoughts and prayers." I admit that I have said the same thing many times when my heart ached, but I just couldn’t find other words. Prayer, we keep using that word and I do not think it means what we think it means. Every time I see this phrase in my Facebook feed or hear it uttered by a politician on the news, I wonder what we all think we’re praying for. Are we offering to make some generic noise in the direction of God’s ear and then move on? Or do we have something specific in mind that we expect God to come down and take care of. Perhaps a miracle that restores the lives lost or some divine assurance something this horrific will never happen again — or at least not happen to us.

What are we praying for? C. S. Lewis, the creator of Narnia, once said, " I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless…It doesn't change God — it changes me.” Are we willing to pray fiercely, even desperately, to be changed?

Are we willing to think that we can change — that we could imagine ways to reduce if not eliminate the carnage? Or should we be praying for forgiveness from the families of the classroom’s worth of children who will be shot to death in the next week because we don’t dare to dream that change is possible.

Can we pray for the vision to see how guns change us? To grasp that we might secretly relish holding the power of life and death in our hands, to consider we sometimes buy guns because they make us feel a little like gods ourselves, or if not gods, at least like a superhero. Or a patriot.

Some say now is not the time, in the wake of a tragedy, to think about the solutions, that we should focus on thoughts and prayers for the dead, the dying and those who loved them. But what are the prayers for, if not to change things, including ourselves? We must go beyond issuing vague petitions in the wake of a tragedy, and instead offer ongoing, concrete prayers for our own change of heart and for the hard, realistic thinking and respectful dialogue it will take to change.

Perhaps the next time our leaders are offering their thoughts and prayers in the wake of a mass shooting, they might take the lead and say what those prayers and thoughts are. That would be a miracle worth praying for.

Peace,

Rev. Kathi