Lord and Creator of All Good,

We need you every morning. But today feels different. We need you this morning a lot.

As a nation, we are deeply divided, reeling. Our family’s car is off the road, it seems, rolled-over, run into the ditch.

Unsure losers and unsure winners, disoriented a bit. People are melting down, or pressed down, or putting others down.

We have just been involved in a cultural collision of values, with a jarring impact, even if it happened in slow motion.

The air-bag powder hangs in the air.

A long political season filled with vilifying has beaten us raw.

A list of flawed choices has tossed us and perplexed our minds.

A media playlist of dire consequences has broken our hopes for tomorrow.

A computer screen full of venting and emoticons has bloodied and dehumanized us.

A deep anger at the way things are has torn the sheet metal of our hearts.

Stunned, we clumsily search for the seat-belt release, but we feel trapped by our wide differences of economics, race, ideology, age, values, and temperament.

Cities are divided. Churches are divided. Friends are divided. Families are divided.  We mumble, “What happened? How did we get here? What do we do now?”

Lord, our hearts are racing. Our emotions of division run hot, too hot, like after any trauma.

We are bruised and wounded and untrusting.

We are uncertain of our future.

We reach widely for our children’s hands.

Lord of the Heart, we again invite you into the crash-scene of our broken lives:

Into our grief and loss,

our gloating and pride,

our anger and disenchantment,

our confusion and fear.

Today, in this glass-shard-filled world, Lord, remind us that:

Jesus lived in a broken world filled with great anger, suffering, abuse, and evil, yet he did not let it define him or constrain him.

Instead, he proclaimed hope and the ever-present Kingdom of God.

He found ways to be generous with his time and love, even as he was rejected, attacked, and beaten by those who did not agree.

Instead, he was continually reaching out in compassion to everyone he encountered.

He healed and forgave the world at every turn, even while in hanging in pain from the Cross.

Instead, he trusted his Father and looked for something much better ahead.

We acknowledge that Jesus is still doing his work, in all those who are available to be used by him.

       He is still proclaiming hope and the Kingdom of God — through us.

        He is still reaching out in compassion –through us.

        He is still trusting and looking ahead to something much better -through us.

We forget that no politician is as good as their followers claim, nor as bad as they are called by their opponents.

We forget that our system of government is full of checks-and-balances, so as to slow any one leader’s choices.

We forget that the sun has come up on a lot of election days, for a lot of years, in many dire times. Life in America remains.

We forget that God is at work in our world.

Jesus never proclaimed a political solution, nor put his trust in any human government.

He simply believed in his followers and told them to be the paramedics of the world:

 “Love one another.”

“Forgive your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me.”

“Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Father, we need you today. A lot.

          May we, with your Coaching, be a force of coming together with forgiveness, grace, and hope.

May we help bring, out of many, one. e plurebus unum.

          May the love and trust of Jesus be in our breast and on our tongues today.

Amen.