God's Friday Prayer

It shouldn't be this way!
The One who is grace embodied and broke open his life to share God's love hung on a cross.
It shouldn't be this way!
The One who prayerfully sought to awaken the truth that you are God's beloved left to die.
It shouldn't be this way!
The One who reached out to rich and poor and everyone who crossed his path.

It shouldn't be this way!
Confined and stuck inside and wanting to break out.
It shouldn't be this way!
Wanting to gather with others physically to pray.
It shouldn't be this way!
People hurting and the ripple effects of the coronavirus to be with us for weeks to come.

The ancients had a word for prayers of protest ~ it is lamentation.
Lament.
Letting our hearts break open with honest and raw emotion.

What do you lament today?
Someone you love who died?
Someone you care about who is hurting?
Your own difficulties not be resolved but revolving continually in your soul?

What do you lament today?
An economy that continually finances the wealthy on the backs of the poor?
Hoarding and clinging to resources?
Treating the earth like we can just throw it way for another planet to live on?
The words we say to each other that hurt and harm and are only for political point scoring?

I lament a world where people would rather puff up their chests and prove they are so smart than admit we are all stumbling.
I lament a world where people are quick to share opinions and then defend their words as if it was more precious than relationships.
I lament generations that have built walls of criticism against each other.
I lament churches that act too much like businesses.
I lament broken relationships in my family.
I lament ways I have acted that were not feed and fueled by love.
At the cross today I realize again, it shouldn't have been that way.

At the cross today, I pray for a trace of grace that helps me realize, it doesn't have to be this way.

Amen.