TDOR Prayer

(11/20/2023 at Finn’s Place)

Lane is a member of the Missional Logistics Team.

Good evening everyone, my name is Lane Sharpe, pronouns he/him. I’m a co-conspirator at Galileo Christian Church and I’ll be leading us in prayer tonight. Please feel free to take whatever posture feels comfortable for you as we address the creator, and if you need to divert your attention elsewhere during this time, that’s also perfectly acceptable.

Oh God, our beloved creator who made us beautifully knowing exactly who we would become, our hearts are heavy with grief as we speak the names of our kindred who we’ve lost this year to senseless acts of violence. In spirit with their friends, families of choice, and families of origin, we mourn, and we search for comfort where comfort simply does not exist. Where we want to apply logic, we cannot. Where we want justice, far too often there is none. And for that, God, we are angry. And we are righteously angry that yet another year has passed and instead of making progress toward acceptance and safety, our community faces increased oppression, persecution, and even calls for our eradication. 

The weight of our grief and anger is crushing, God, and we desperately want to shed the burdens that so often feel impossibly heavy. When every news cycle delivers the threat of new laws denying our basic human rights, trading despair for hope becomes exceedingly difficult. But we still hope for a day when instead of being the news, we can simply and openly exist in peace as our authentic selves. The authentic selves who you created to bring beauty to this world; to show that the expansiveness of your creation cannot be confined to a binary, but instead thrives on a spectrum. 

And so, God, we pray for the downfall of those who seek to inflict more violence on our people. We pray for the political ruin of those who seek to legislate the erasure of our existence. We pray for every hardened, fear-mongering heart to be broken, and that those who have sought to bring us harm will not only cease, but repent.

We are weary from this fight, God, and we pray for a day when our community will have equity instead of enduring unending attempts to strip us of our rights. We pray for a day when we don’t have to suffer the constant threat of violence. And we pray for a day when instead of mourning a new list of lives lost far too soon, we can hold space for the past while celebrating peace and progress. 

Hear us, God, as we lay all of this before you in your powerful name. Amen.