A Prayer for Wednesday, October 7, 2015

With (Part 3)

O God,

Help us to be with each other.

Help us first to remember that we are in fact with each other. We are in our neighborhood, our town, our state, our region, our country, and our world with each other. Try as we might to live apart from one another, we are on this planet together. As much as we let our differences come between us (or cause them to), we are in fact bound by our common humanity.

Help us to be more aware of and intentional about building the human community of which we are all a part. Help us to think less and less in terms of categories, stereotypes, and generalizations. Help us to think more and more in terms of individual human beings and of particular situations. Help us to take advantage of opportunities to get to learn about each other and to get to know each other.

Help us to be with each other in real and honest ways. Help us to be fully present with people when we are talking with them. Cause us to invest our lives in each other. Make us willing to give ourselves up for one other.

Let us always remember that you chose to be with us in your Son Jesus Christ. Let us never forget that in Christ you were with us to the point of death on the cross. Let us remember that he died not just for his friends but for his enemies. Help us to be with each other in ways that reveal that we are his followers.

Help us, O God, to be with each other.

Amen.