A Responsive Prayer Adapted from Job

Text: Job 19:7-19

In our Wisdom Literature class here at Northside, we’ve been reading through the book of Job.  Though the text is ancient, I can’t help but hear it echoed in the world around us today.  As another wisdom book, Ecclesiastes, put it: There is nothing new under the sun.  What we see today is not new – but perhaps our response can be. 

Below is a responsive prayer adapted from Job.  I invite all of us to read it – as both a personal prayer and with our families and friends at Northside Church.

A Responsive Prayer Adapted from Job 19:7-19

Cries of “Violence!” but are not answered;

    Shouts—but there is no justice.

Lord, forgive my deafness. 

  Walled up paths that can’t be passed

        and a trail covered in darkness,

      stripped of honor,

        crowns removed from the head,

       torn down completely to the point of death,

      and uprooted hope like a tree.

Lord, give me ears to hear. 

Anger burns;

    the other has become enemy.

Troops come as one

    and construct their siege ramp against the other;

    they camp around the tent.

Lord, forgive my blindness.

Families have been distanced from each other;

    friends have been alienated from themselves.

Visitors have ceased;

    those who know have forgotten the other.

Lord, give me eyes to see.

The other is thought a stranger;

     they are seen as a foreigner.

The other calls and receives no answer;

    they must beg to be heard.

The breath of the other stinks;

    they have become odious.

Lord, forgive our ignorance and indifference.

Even the young despise the other;

    They get up, and are railed against.

 Closest friends despise each other.

    Loved ones turn against themselves. 

Lord, teach us the way of your love. 

Lord, teach us the way of your love.

Amen.