What I Want for This Nation

As I type this, we're about two hours away from fireworks and the celebration of our nation's 238th year. I've been thinking today, asking myself, "How should I pray for this nation? What does God want for our country?" I think I have at least part of an answer.

There's been an old car parked on our church's parking lot for several days. Someone had car trouble, and that's as far as he got. It's a vehicle that has seen better days. One night early this week, as I headed into the church facility for a meeting, I saw two guys working on the car; a young man who was the owner, and someone he'd brought to help. Late for the meeting, I went by them at a distance in and a hurry, but I did get a look at the young man's face. Clearly he was distressed, and hoping he could move the car off our lot. He is a different ethnicity than most of the people who attend worship at our place, and he is considerably under the average income of our crowd. His car does not fit in with the bulk of those that will be parked around it on any given Sunday. His discomfort and embarrassment were evident, so I waved and smiled as I headed for the north end of the building.

The next morning when I came past the car, there was a handwritten note on one of the windshield wipers. It read something like, "I'm sorry. I'm trying to move my car off your lot as soon as possible." That kind of broke my heart. So I scribbled at the bottom of the sheet, "Don't worry about it. You're welcome here."

My prayer for this nation is that gatherings of Jesus-followers throughout this land create an environment in which people like him know they are valued, welcomed, and safe - not just in our parking lots, but in our hearts. I pray for environments in which a child of God like the car owner would not feel the discomfort and need to write such notes. I pray for a day when such presumed differences will not be noticed or tolerated. I pray for the moment that this young man knows that he is worth the life, death, resurrection, and return of the Son of God, every bit as much as the folks in the building into whose parking lot his old car limped.

That's my prayer for our country this day. What's yours? Happy 4th, and I'll see you around the next bend.