by Ken Sehested
We must be prepared.
Things are likely to get worse
before they get better. We
must listen to the news,
from a variety of sources.
But we must not draw our
bearings from that news.
Ours is a larger horizon.
We must be prepared to
take emergency action, to
go completely out of our
comfort zones, in resisting
the Powers-and-Principalities’
sway over current events.
In the meantime, however,
we must not neglect
our common duties:
• to care for those close,
especially our young ones,
in guiding them toward a
life commitment to empathy,
simultaneously brave and humble;
• to care for neighbors, for
friends and acquaintances
and co-workers—no less
than for the earth itself.
• to be faithful in communities
of faith, in whatever form that
takes, to listen for and proclaim
the Word’s invitation and direction;
• to building a culture of peace
in the zip codes, the watersheds,
the time zones, in which we live
and with special attention to and
advocacy for those who presently
have no seat at the table of bounty;
• to risk the status we have been
given in the world as is present
on behalf of the world that is promised.
In light of these and an endless
list of other similar commitment,
we plead:
Lord have mercy on our frail
appeal; and grant what we need
for the living of these days.
©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org
16 July 2018
