Hopeless prayers
Psalm 23 New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE April 21, 2024 Slightly out of focus photo of a green and blue-hued cup with a golden rim being filled with hot tea, with shadows in the foreground and light shining in the background. Recently, a colleague and friend posted about what she called her “schizophrenic” prayer life. We really need to stop using that word or the word “crazy” as a synonym for the neurotypical experience of feeling disconnected or disjointed, when we feel like our inner life is all over the place. What she described, though, is probably how many of us feel when we pray. We watch or listen to the news. We scroll through our feeds on social media and read about what’s going in the lives friends and loved ones, in the lives of those working for change, in the lives of those suffering from devastating violence, oppression, and hunger, and if we have any sympathy or empathy, we can’t help but pray, shout, cry, stumble over our thoughts and feelings. We
