Thy will be done

After listening to a news report the other day about the most recent school shooting in Seattle, I struggle to decide which was more upsetting/angering - the shooting or the final remark of the report: “Once again, we are simply in need of prayer,” the reporter lamented.

I am not in any way willing, even for a moment, to discount the untold power of prayer.  I am also not in any way willing, even for a moment, to discount the notion that G-d’s grace, rather than man’s ego, is source of any and all that is good in the world. But I am also not willing to abandon the notion that the intellectual capital and physical deeds/acts that man is capable of having is part of that grace, and thus is to be used accordingly.

“We are simply in need of prayer” doesn’t cut it. The offense to humankind of a single, or two, or a thousand shooters pales to that of those who believe or promote the notion that “we are simply in need of prayer.”

I am no religious scholar, but I am aware of one message that inherently transcends the petty problems of and/or differences between men.

In all things:  “pray as if everything [that happens] depends on God, act/work as if everything [that happens] depends on you.” 

We are not "simply in need of prayer" – we are in need of a merger!