Many are suffering from anxieties raised by the tenor of this year’s presidential election, on top of fears about the coronavirus, lack of employment or dealing with ongoing restrictions like social distancing. On a more personal note, many feel like they are drowning in a sea of confusing emotions generated by months of loneliness or the divisive political views of friends and family. Here is a poem and an exercise that may help.
Step One: Prayer for Help
Lord Jesus,
Turbulent waves threaten to knock us over
and even divide us from one another.
Each day a new political tsunami slams us.
Pandemics of every kind surround us
and we are drowning.
Send your Holy Spirit,
wash over us, purify us, heal us, renew our hearts
so that we may not sink beneath waves of fear and depression.
Help us arise and walk across the flooded waters
into your loving arms. Amen.
Step Two: What do I Believe?
St. Gregory the Great (540–604) prayed, “In the shipwreck of this present life, sustain me by the plank of prayer, lest I sink by my own weight. Instead, let the hand of your mercy raise me up.”
Jesus, Emanuel, I believe that you are present as I vote and as we tally our votes. Lord, help my unbelief.
Jesus, Son of God, I believe that your heavenly Father is the source of all leadership and power. Lord, help my unbelief.
Holy Savior, I believe that you truly care about our country’s poverty, in all of its many forms, and will answer our most pressing needs. Lord, help my unbelief.
Jesus, King of Kings, I trust that you will anoint our elected officials with gifts of wisdom and peace-making. Lord, help my unbelief.
Step Three: Meditate on God’s Word
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God . . . emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Philippians 2:5-7). Simply lay all of your needs and our countries needs before God (names these needs out-loud); then empty yourself of fear and anxieties.
Romans 8: 32, 35, 37-39 (NRSV)
To be read slowly, at least twice. Listen for a phrase that touches you. Repeat the phrase several times and finish by reading the passage one final time.
“He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not also give us everything else?
[So] who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.”