Prayer in the Midst of Stress and Suffering, by Dr. W. E. B. DuBois

Greetings,

      There is much happening our lives, and throughout our society.  We are poised on the brink of economic disaster and in addition to the officially counted unemployed, there are huge numbers of unemployed who have now dropped off the official count.  The election year is already producing an even greater polarization of our society; elected officials and candidates freely say whatever they think will be best for them at the moment, regardless of the truth.  Today there is a great need for people of character and strength, for people who have the truth and power of God.  The following is a prayer by W. E. B. DuBois who was a writer, teacher, theologian, civil rights leader and a founder of the NAACP.  The prayer was written while Dr. DuBois was professor of economics and sociology at Atlanta University, an institution which included a primary school, grammar school, high school and college.  It was for its students that Dr. DuBois wrote this and many prayers.  Yet this prayer expresses the reality and needs we all face as we struggle with life.

      "It is the wind and the rain, O God, the cold and the storm that make this earth of Thine to blossom and bear its fruit.  So in our lives it is storm and stress and hurt and suffering that make real men and women bring the world's work to its highest perfection.  Let us learn then in these growing years to respect the harder sterner aspects of life together with its joy and laughter, and to weave them all into the great web which hangs holy to the Lord."

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      Sunday the lectionary readings included the account in Genesis 1 of the creation of all things by God, and Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of his ministry as recorded in Mark 1. 

      Do we truly understand that this earth belongs to God, and that we have a responsibility for it, that we will be held accountable for what we do to it?  Do we truly understand that when Paul speaks of the grace of suffering, as in Romans 8:17, it actually applies to us?  Do we truly understand that we are all still in our “growing years” as we are in the process of Sanctification?  Do we truly understand just how much we need the Lord?

Yours & His,

DED