Thoughts and Prayers...and Actions

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Tuesday night I attended a town hall where members of our community came to share their concerns following the horrific school shooting in Uvalde. The gathering was at Rosemont Elementary where we have many students, alumni, and faculty.

It was attended by four of our area state representatives —including our local representatives Rafael Anchia and Jessica Gonzalez— as well as many leaders from DISD security and mental health professionals.

I was honored to pray as this event opened, and I will tell you about what I prayed in a moment.

But first, I want to talk about the parents we heard from that night. During the meeting, parent after parent expressed their concerns for their children. One of the themes that kept recurring is that for very *young* children and their parents, the pandemic, followed by this shooting, has truly traumatized our Oak Cliff families.

Families are still trying to find an elusive sense of “normal” and stability. Parents are wrestling with how much information to share with their young children about these horrific events. Local leaders —many of whom *truly do want to act* to change our laws in ways that will keep children safer— feel stymied by powerful forces that resist change.

As I mentioned, I prayed to open the event. But, before my prayer, I spoke about *what* I would pray and why. I told the crowd that after any number of mass shootings in America, leaders and politicians often call for “thoughts and prayers.”

But, as these shootings continue to happen with troubling frequency, it can feel frustrating to hear this call to prayer with little or no action that follows.

Therefore, I reminded them, and I’ll remind you now, that there are really two ways people can mean the phrase “Thoughts and Prayers.”

1. “Thoughts and Prayers” can be a wall to defend leaders against acting for change.
2. “Thoughts and Prayers” can be a desperate plea for spiritual comfort and help and a call for God’s presence as we do impossible things.

It’s within this second understanding that I prayed. And I thought I’d close this essay by sharing that prayer here:

Holy, Compassionate, and Just God,
Hear the prayers of our broken hearts.

Holy One, we know that you are able to bring new life out of heartbreak. Even when nothing is ever quite the same, when hearts overflow with grief, you are planting seeds of new life.

But God, we know that you need us to act…not just pray.

May our prayers lead us to LISTEN… to our mutual and individual concerns for our own children and for their safety.

May our prayers lead us to ACT… to stand up to powerful interests who seem to place their wishes ahead of the safety of our children.

May our prayers lead us to WISDOM…that we might not overreact in fear and by doing so, cause more anxiety.

Help us to find that challenging middle ground between responding to real threat and living in constant fear.

We pray for all the elected and appointed officials here today. We pray for all the beautiful staff and children of all our schools. We pray for the courage to stand up to the powerful who resist change. We pray for our own children. And we confess the fear we have for them and our helplessness to sometimes know how to encourage and dispel their fears.

In the midst of our confusion, help us to listen to each other as neighbors and friends…and move beyond words to action.

For if our prayers are merely words, we know that they are not acceptable to you, O God.

So give us courage…to listen…to change…to pray…to act.

In your holy name we pray all these things.

Amen.