#BecauseWeSaidSo

While en route to try out a recommended gym for an afternoon workout, I decided to stop by my parents house; being it was near my destination.  I'm chatting it up with my dad when across the screen flashes the news about the shocking bombing at the Boston Marathon.  Human nature allows for a person in this situation to assume the worst; and so our silent thoughts and prayers were immediately directed to the [projected] hundreds of victims.  Once it was released that only 3 people perished, we concerned ourselves with praying for the families of those 3 victims while praising God for such minimal loses given the situation.  Apparently, I was in the minority here...as social and professional media alike commanded that we all #prayforBoston.  Well noted and adhered to.  But I couldn't help to think to myself, "Chicago is a little over 100 murders right now.  How come no one is hash-tagging to pray for them?"

Maybe because it's mostly African and Hispanic Americans that are dying in Chi-Town that they don't get hash-tagged for prayer.  Or maybe because there are so many only popular murders call for prayers in Chicago.  Cases such as Hadiya Pendleton, who was murdered days after she performed at President Obama's inauguration, got heavy requests for prayer. Certainly that deserves some national prayer because, you know, that's an important one. I mean, who knows why East Oakland, California, or North Miami, or Detroit, or Camden, New Jersey don't get on the #prayfor list?  Wait...I do know.  It's because the people who are supposed to be leading the spiritual healing of the land are not.  Instead, we are waiting for those who mock The Lord and His Son to do so; hence we pray for who they tell us to pray for.

Quick example: When I discovered that a school district in Chicago was closing all of it's schools, I hash tagged pray for Chicago schools.  It only garnered a few likes, unlike when I post scriptures about prosperity...that gets around 50 likes.  Clearly, it wasn't important enough for the Christians in social or professional media to take notice.

So often in His Holy Word, those who are in the family of God are directed to take spiritual concern and practical action to address the sufferings of others (Philippians 2:3,4; Proverbs 22:9, Psalms 82:3, Matthew 10:8, Ezekiel 22:30).  Yet for some reason, we, those who hold and operate the keys of healing, are only coming against issues that an evil society deems relevant.  With so many atrocities happening right in your ('your' used relatively) city or state, much less the U.S.A., why aren't there thousands of daily, public, specific prayer requests?  To me, it only makes sense that if we did pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) many of these things wouldn't even happen.  Most of us call that being preventative.  But we who will one day judge the world are taking directions from the sinners we'll eventually judge.  Appears to be somewhat backwards.

So....since your job lets you post and tweet all day...

#prayforMS13
#prayforRichmondPublicSchools
#prayforthepornindustry
#prayformotherswithpostpartem
#prayforexconslookingforlegaljobs
#prayforprescriptiondrugabusers
#prayforfrustratedsingleparents
#prayforvictimsofregentrification

The list goes on...

Peace