I've felt pretty shell shocked watching BBC news the past few days.  Is it just me or does anyone else feel like the world is falling apart around their ears?" writes 24-7's Carla Trundle.  

 

"Maybe the news has become more sensational, focusing on the negative, or maybe we're just more aware of the world around us and communication is faster and more reliable.  What ever the reason this week it feels like humanity has taken a battering.  Nearly every continent has been mourning in one way or another and you can guarantee that less than half of what's happened gets beamed to our cozy little lounges in our 'safe' neighborhoods.

 

Watching the devastation and anarchy caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the tragic deaths of the Pilgrims crushed or drowned on the bridge in Baghdad, the Beslan school massacre survivors and relatives morning the anniversary of the death of 331 people (186 of them children) yesterday, I found myself pleading God for no more.  No more news, no more tragedies, no more death and morning. 

 

As I watched the headlines the concerned news reader continued with the story of a mother who jumped in front of an express train carrying her new born and dragging a five year old.  The senseless nature of the killing, the desperation of the suicide was too much.  I know that pain is a reality of the world we live in.  I know that we live in the tension between the glimpse of the Kingdom that's here and the fullness of the Kingdom that's yet to come but I feel like I must respond.

 

I can't get to New Orleans or Baghdad.  I can't put my arms around the survivors in Beslan or the relatives of the young mother.  But I can do the only thing I know how.  I can pray.  We can pray.  I'm not sure where to start and I'm not sure what to ask for but I do know that El Shaddai is the only one who spans race and division.  So I guess I'll start to deal with this week on my knees...

 

My Father in Heaven,
Your Kingdom come, you're will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven... 

 

Pray for the world with Operation World...