Defend Our Cause

God, what's wrong with these people who attack us? They say we do the work of Satan, but our whole hearts are bent on doing your work and living your life. Are they so consummed by their own pain and hunger that they would devour us? Does their jealousy burn them so much they must pass the flame to others?

Jesus, am I like this? Do I hate anyone who has some success? Do I become so poisonous when I fall into comparison with others? Am so threatened by those who think differently, walk differently, and look differently than me? Is their very existence taken as a condemnation of who I am?

May we all, Lord, discover ourselves in you. From your depths flows springs that cannot be exhausted. From your imagination sprouts diversity that cannot be comprehended. Teach us to celebrate your grace, which manifests intself in vessels as varied as the colors of this great universe. May we become lost in the work of redmeption and not ever err to think our work is condemnation. Defend our cause, but we do not pray that you condemn our accusers. No. Instead, lavish on them the riches that have turned our own souls from vicious thieves to heirs of your Kingdom. Amen.