Questioning Prayer: Why Should I Keep Praying After Yet Another Shooting?

I have asked and I have asked.

I have begged, and I have pleaded.

And yet my requests have gone unanswered.

I have offered constant intercession to you — a plea to stop the violence, a plea for some kind of intervention to end the killing, the tragedy, and the senseless deaths.

But the resounding silence in response is deafening, overwhelming and oppressive.

There is always another death at the hands of other humans.

The gun is always reloaded.

More innocent blood will spilled.

That chilling truth is almost enough for me to lose faith completely in you.

So each time I wonder if this will be the last time. Not the last time for violence, but the last time I’ll have the sheer will to keep asking, to keep praying.

I mean, how can I even continue to trust in you?

Are you even listening?

I’m begging you.

Answer me!

Listen to me!

I know you have the power, the power to stop all this. I know it is within your reach to intervene and to do something extraordinary, to end violence and gun deaths, to stop hate and fill the world with love and peace.

But what kind of monster has the power to do something yet refuses to, time and again?

How can I keep trusting a monster?  Like I said, it’s almost enough to make me throw my hands up and give up trusting in you completely.

But I made a promise to love you, to trust you, and to be in relationship to you. And I’ll keep my promise to you even when it doesn’t make sense any more to do so, even when you never seem to answer.

So I’ll keep believing in you.

I’ll keep trusting you.

I’ll keep asking you.

I’ll keep believing in you all, in the hope that one day, humanity will hear me, their Creator, and finally answer my prayers to stop the cruel violence, the wanton killing, and the senseless deaths.

Amen.

Photo credit: Luca Moglia, (flickr), used under Creative Commons Copyright.