Lord God, who created this world,
      and all that is in it to be good—very good.
Forming,
      Blowing,
            Planting,
                  Growing,
                        Placing,
                              Making,
                                    Bringing,
                                          Operating,
                                                Fashioning,
                                                      Bringing.
Walking together at the close of day.

Oh God, how can we watch the news,
      and not come to you in lament?
Crying out day after day, week after week,
      even as we walk together at sunset?
God, your world is dead-set to find ways
      of destroying itself and everything in it.
Those made in your image and given dominion,
      have failed you, and all that was once good.
The words inhumane and unbelievable
      gain new meaning every night.

God help us.

No wonder you decided the only thing to do
      was to undo, releasing the waters:
opening the windows of the sky-dome,
      bursting the fountains of the great deep.
Starting over again: a second try for us,
      with the same results: unfaithful hearts.
So you made your own plans to fix the mess,
      a love story still hard to believe.
But meanwhile we live here with the
      violence,
            brutal
                  callous
                        insensitive
                              vicious
                                    appalling
                                          ruthless
                                                merciless
                                                      cruel
                                                            hard-hearted
                                                                  selfish
and I don’t know what to do at the close of day
      with all these ashes in my hands.
Amen

Limited permission is granted for reuse of this prayer in worship or other venues. If printed in any form attribution must be given as "Glenn Pemberton, mosaicsite.org/glennpemberton." Special permission is required to print three or more of these prayers at one time in any form, print, electronic, etc., and must be secured by request at gdp05b@acu.edu.