Today in our prayers for the people of Bolivia.

Prayer for Peace

Shandra Newcom

God of Peaceful Community,

You have planted in us a seed of peace that, if we will tend to it with our deepest hope for your future, will grow to be a peace that transforms the world.

We are busy. Too much is happening and we feel unmoored. There is violence and grief. We incarcerate and kill. Wars rage on. We long for peace and, looking around for it, we cannot find it.

But we know, loving One, that this is the time—not for fear or hatred, but for planting. We plant your love in our hearts and actions and we offer them, with great joy, to others so that they may be a part of the peace-planting, too.

Our journey of peace emerges from our faith. We may not see peace in the world as possible. We might not participate in loving community because we do not feel welcome. We might not know how to survive.

But faithfully, we move on, gathering one another as we go. We cry out peace in the face of violence. We tend to one another where there is grief. We change systems of oppression that for too long have caused pain. We look for ways to end war.

We trust you, O God.

May we water the seeds of peace planted in us so that we can take radical and wild action in the world that will bring about your kindom here and now. May we watch them and whisper love to them so that we can choose peace, each day, over and over again, in a way that shows the world the love of Christ.

And may our seeds of peace grow into sturdy trees of peace, where all are welcome, celebrated, loved. Where we are no longer alone. And where peace is not just our mission, it becomes our fullest lives.

May we be yours, God of what’s next? We are grateful that you have trusted us, and we commit our lives to your work.

So be it.