A Prayer Amid the Epidemic

Prayer and blessing given at the Chamber of Commerce monthly meeting, Vestavia Hills, Alabama, March 10, 2020, by Dr. Gary Furr, pastor, Vestavia Hills Baptist Church.

God of grace and mystery, healing and love

In this moment, we pray

For health workers and the CDC, and all in positions of care

Protect their lives, use their skills, lift them up in their weariness

For lab workers and immunologists, scientists and community leaders

for nurses and physicians, and those already exposed to illness.

 

Above all, protect us from hopelessness and the fear of one another

Pray that we have courage to pull together, to weather the storm

To be prudent, to carry on, to trust each another

amid the torrent of blame and accusations and anger

We ask instead to direct our energies to healing

and the desire to protect one another with all our might.

But these things we ought pray always.

 

It is not death we fear

But hopelessness in facing sickness and death.

Strengthen our faith, our common resolve,

our love for one another and for all of humanity

We ask that we not shrink back in adversity, but step forward, unafraid

Continue our caring, fight the good fight, build peace

deepen trust and strengthen hope.

 

Bless the food we share, the work we do

and all the families represented around these tables–

parents and children, grandparents and kin

and may we bless one another and all we meet all day long.   Amen.