Prayer for a terrorist

It's hard to think beyond those searing images in the news, hard to consider much beyond the endless talk of protracted war. But, stunned and wounded as we are, we do what we can. We pray.

Most of us can't do the physical work of recovery in New York. Even so we're filled with the unsatisfied and urgent need to do something -- something with our hands. So we pray.

Prayer work -- real prayer work is emotionally hard. Jesus "sweat blood" as he prayed that night in the Garden.

Scientific studies have convinced many skeptics that prayer actually works. It has a positive effect on both the pray-er and on those for whom prayers are offered. But I think effective intercessory prayer must certainly be "hard" prayer -- difficult, taxing.

Paul exhorted followers to "pray without ceasing."

So, I light a candle on my desk each morning to remind me to keep an ongoing prayer dialogue with God. Since 9/11, the little flame has been lit variously in remembering victims of the attack, firefighters and police, our President, world leaders -- even the terrified animals near ground zero that infamous day. That kind of praying is the easier part.

But Jesus told us to pray also for our enemies. In this case, that means Osama bin Laden and his operatives. But how? Who has the heart to pray for a monster, as we've been calling him?

I don't know of anyone praying for Osama. Yet pray for him we must.

Aside from what some would see as an altruistic or naÃ¯ve effort, praying for Osama and those like him is essential if we've heard Christ. We must pray for him because he needs it, because we need to do it for our own healing. And we must pray, sweating blood, because if we don't focus on the roots of terrorist hatred and name that which is hateful in ourselves, we have no hope of peace, no hope of ever really feeling safe in our own country again.

Last updated on 01/14/2004

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