Holy Father,

The question could be asked:

Have you left us?
Have you abandoned some?
Could a few say they've been forsaken of God
and smitten?

It's a difficult question - Some argue you have.
Some say you are no longer around.
Some insist you've forgotten most, if you exist at all.

There are lives broken,
People displaced
Women beaten and raped
Children without Fathers
Fathers without wives
Wives without children
And the vicious and brutal cycles
keeping so many in poverty of relationship
and brokenness
and sadness.

Have you left us?
Or abandoned some?
Could a few say they've been forsaken of God
and smitten?

We are lovers of violence and bloodshed.
Nations choose war over peace.
My own nation choosing war over peace.
Can this be the status of a place
where Jehovah dwells in the midst?
Are you at the center of the mayhem?
Are you in the middle of the brokenness?

Have you left us to our Facebook posts
and our Twitter opinions
and our utter lack of gentleness and grace?
Are we now to peddle our hate to the highest bidder,
to those with the most clicks, likes, and shares?
Compassion is cheap when it costs us nothing
but a click.
Are we on our own with that?

Have you left us?
Or abandoned some?
Could a few say they've been forsaken of God
and smitten?

But, there's a greater truth,
A bigger question.
A grander reality.

You are in your people.
You are dwelling in me.
You are manifest in your Church.

Jesus was forsaken so the Spirit could live in us.

If you are in your people and
You are dwelling in me and
You are manifest in your church

Then

You are here.

So, if we am with the broken -
You are there, as well.

And they are not abandoned.

Because you have not left us
And we will not leave them.

So, Father of kindness and mercy,
let us never forsake the mess
until the day you redeem it all
and all is well
forever.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit