A Prayer About Intense Groaning
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Romans 8:22-23
Heavenly Father, I’m feeling so many different things as this day begins. Images of horror and heartache in Haiti simply will not go away… and they shouldn’t go away. People being loaded into trucks for mass grave burials… infants desperate for formula… tens of thousands of newly orphaned children… As much as I would like to tune-out, numb-out and check-out, the gospel compels me to keep my heart present in the overwhelming distress and dimensions of this crisis.
Paul’s words about the intense painful groaning of childbirth seem appropriate to the situation… and there’s no epidural, there’s no anesthesia, there’s nothing to diminish the raw pain of what’s going on in Haiti.
There’s only our hope that you, our God, do not lie. In the cries of a whole nation of people, in the moaning of its fragile land, you bid us hear the faint but sure cry of hope. Though to some degree it mocks my sensibilities, I abandon myself to your promise that one Day, Haiti, itself will be covered with the knowledge of the glory of God… one Day it will have trees again and those trees will clap their hands… one Day its hills will seem like dancing mountains.
One Day you will wipe away every tear from the eyes of your people in Haiti, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away for Haiti, and for the rest of your world in waiting (Rev. 21:4). How long, oh Lord? How long until that increasingly longed for Day? Oh that it could be today…
But because of this hope, we will not tune-out, numb-out, or check-out. We will seek to show up. Now lead us, King Jesus, lead us into your work of redemption and restoration. What will it mean to love mercy, do justice and walk humbly with you in Haiti?
We praise you that you do not despise our confusion, our despair or even our railings against heaven and the mysteries of hard providence… but give us all the gospel-sanity we will need to follow you into the heart-wrenching brokenness and chaos. So very Amen, I pray, in your tender and trustworthy name.