Poor Americans

June 12, 2016

Usually I am hustling around getting children ready for church at about this time on Sundays. Instead, I’m sitting quietly in the yard at the Disciples’ Village campus in Haiti, listening to the soft sounds and soaking up the peace that accompanies this blessed place.

We visited a village church today. I could hear a woman praying and recognized only two words: “Merci, Senor.” Thank you, Lord. Her prayer was filled with such passion and pleading. I was astounded by the desperation, going so far as to pound on the pew in front of her as she cried out.

It was obvious that all her hope was wrapped up in the One she was praying to. She wouldn’t ask with such fervency if she didn’t believe He was the only one capable. She was desperate for the One with Power to see her plight, and act.

Our American prayers seem cold and flat compared to hers. What is the difference, I wonder? Maybe we pray hoping that God might answer, but fully believing we can accomplish what we want if He does not.

In America, our incredible resources have given us an inflated view of our own power. And it’s robbing us of the ability to see that we desperately need God. 

We are not truly hungry here. We have little concept of how to fully rely on Another. Yet we think we have nothing to learn from third world cultures who are forced to pray “Give us our daily bread,” and then walk on with faith trusting that He will. 

The difference in their prayers and ours is that the know they have no other option. God is the only answer to what they need.

In America, we are so poor in comparison.