By Glenn Johnson of Thousand Palms, California, USA

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Follow Jesus, the Peaceful One. I awoke as usual by praying the Mission Prayer and then joined an online prayer gathering sponsored by the Greater Pacific Northwest Mission Center that was held online in honor of the 96th anniversary of the birth of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and to provide an alternative for those troubled by the inauguration that day.

I was moved by the online prayer sessions and slides. During a break, I listened to the inaugural address in hope of conciliation. Many alarms were raised including the declaration of a “national emergency” at the border. Troops were to be sent. The words of the Mission Prayer echoed in my mind: “God, where will your Spirit lead today?” As a minister, I felt compelled to pray. I felt the urging of the Spirit to go to the border. I decided to offer a statement of exhortation as well as a prayer right there in front of the border wall and share it on social media. The next day I drove to the Los Angeles LGBT Center and offered exhortation and prayer there.

For 100 days, I prayed the Mission Prayer, scanned the news for a place of concern, prepared a thoughtful statement of exhortation, and then went to the place where people were being threatened, intimidated, and otherwise impacted and affected by the many challenging issues of our day. Schools, hospitals, waterways, forests, consulates, churches, charitable offices, and many other vulnerable locations and people were prayed for during the “first 100 days.”

I prayed for forgiveness for my complicity. My time and energy were severely tapped. I struggled to maintain the pace, but the urgency of the mission of peace and justice that I felt God calling me to enabled persistence. Each day as I awoke to pray the Mission Prayer, I found “the courage to risk something new.” Convinced by the mission of Jesus Christ to follow Jesus, the Peaceful One, I remain committed to finding even better ways of “becoming a blessing of God’s love and peace.”

Prayer Phrase

“Bear one another’s burdens…” (Galatians 6:2).

Spiritual Hunger

Jesus discerned hungers of body and spirit, and he fed them through a physical, verbal, spiritual ministry of presence. In a time of listening prayer, ask God to help you discern physical or spiritual hungers of people in your congregation, community, and global family. Invite the Spirit to move you to one hospitable act that “feeds” someone’s hunger today.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.