Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness

because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction;

their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels;

 because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,

for they have rebelled against you.

Imagine for a moment, as long a moment as you can bear it, the agonies of all those sitting in prisons today, mothers separated from their children, men from their wives, imagine the runaways, those caught up in prostitution, abortion, gang warfare.  Pick one, someone you know or know of.  Then, apply the words of this Psalm as they might begin to consider how they got there.

We know what it’s like to feel the weight of guilt for something we said or did or left undone.  Imagine if your sins had taken your further, deeper, deadlier into shame and captivity than you ever thought you could go.  Imagine the cry of your heart when you would recognize that your mortal enemies had never been mortal at all, but spiritual enemies strong enough to abort your will to say “no,” your freedom to turn and walk away, to choose life.

Imagine, if you can, what it might be like for those so taken up by evil that the first thing they do in prison is join a new gang.   Belonging is everything.  If we are privileged only to imagine these things, we are privileged to pray for those who went too far and have lost the way back.

Imagine confronting those spiritual entities that have no truth in their mouths, whose inmost self is destruction, the ones that flattered you to think you “belonged” with other sinners, spiritual powers that rebelled against parents, family, society and in the end, you saw that they were rebels against God, taking you with them, their lies swallowing you into an open grave, and now, let’s pray as if these were our children.

For some in the Body of Christ, they are … and we will care deeply.

It is reported that there were more than 10,000 members of the MS-13 gang alone in the United States in 2018.  That’s an average of 200 per state, with larger numbers in densely populated areas, of course, with other gang population totals topping 1.4 million.

In my research I made this discovery, a quote from a teacher in Central Islip on Long Island, one of many who have been watching classroom seats empty out to gang membership,“Unless we take the time and say ‘They are our children, too,’ and ‘We have to do better,’ I don’t think it’s going to get better.”  Programs they may inaugurate, successes they may have, but there can be no greater hope for our Desperate Little Friends than that we begin to care to our core, and caring, to pray in faith, believing, because those empty chairs were once occupied by somebody’s child.

Lord God, again we ask that You would forgive and heal our own insular lives, when our prayers are for our children exclusively, not theirs, our sincerest hopes that evil won’t come near our dwelling, no matter how desperately poor and hopeless others may be.  We do hold that hope, but for those who have already lost children to evil, to deceptions, we pray, we ask, that You would bring them home, and that You would make their homes to be fit to come back to.  Impoverished, forgotten, deserted, steeped in addiction and violence, we are making ourselves care with more than fleeting emotion.  Bring them home, Lord, to our hearts and to their families!  Amen.

18th Street Gang Signal, Wikipedia, by permission – Aerial Twist

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

Do you remember when we set out and began to talk about making a list of those we know, those we love, those for whom we made a decision to care deeply, many of whom are living under a crushing weight of guilt, deception, oppression, fear, or anxiety so heavy  and unnatural that we would consider those burdens chronic and even “clinical,” if we had to categorize them?  It is for them we pray when we lift our prayers and cry out to our God.  Think of yours, your Desperate Little Friends, those you know who are overwhelmed in life and floundering on the sands.

Certainly, we pray for ourselves, our families, our happy and well-adjusted friends and neighbors, but while we navigate through our days, even our most difficult ones, every one of us knows several who are living in spiritual desperation.  That can’t be coincidental!  We are strategically located on this earth, that, as my Pastor says, “None should miss the grace of God,” not those who live next door, not those who make the headlines, not those imprisoned actually or spiritually.

 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

            “Lord God, You take no pleasure in wickedness, but what if the most wicked thing of all is to have liberty, forgiveness, truth, peace, joy in our salvation, and to leave in captivity those too desperate to see their own desperation, too blind to see the escape tunnel, too wounded to trust, even in God? 

            “Father, we know men, women, and children who have lifted their heads above water for a few gasping breaths, and some that have been drowning, drowning, drowning for decades.  These are our Dear Little Friends, our Desperate Little Friends, and just as the Psalmist writes, a few of them are themselves workers of iniquity, liars, blood-thirsty and deceitful boasters, gang members, addicts … abortionists … themselves taken captive by devils to do his will, just as the Scripture says, but they have mothers and fathers who grieve for them.  Some are already in prison, some in so much danger that they would be better off if they were, not to mention those falsely accused.

            “O Lord!  This is a grievous thing!   In our time, in our culture and under our watch, most of them are not knife-wielding mercenaries, crawling through the underbrush to get at us, as did David’s mortal enemies.  Most of our DLFs are still  holding down jobs, raising families, but with darkened souls and fear in their eyes and regrets overtaking their hearts. Some will not survive without Your deliverance, and we care about them. We meet them on the job, in committee meetings, at the gym, and sometimes in Church.  They post on social media, sometimes their perspectives are chilling, and some of them have a broad field of influence.  Too long have we feared them, resented their intrusions.  If dozens are praying for them, we add our prayers.  If no one else is praying for them, we are.

But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.
Psalm 5:3-7 (NIV)

            “You abhor the blood-thirsty and the deceitful man, O God, but You see those that made them that way, those that have thirsted for their blood.  Even the Scripture says there are some for whom we do not pray, but let us take up an anthem for every one that can turn and repent and be saved.  One, is a brother.  One, a father.  One a husband.  One, a mother.  Another, an executive.  Another, a very troubled child.  Some were priests.  Some still are.  Some teach. Some sit in judgment. 

            “Too long have we resented their sin and failed to take the battle to the camp of THEIR enemies.  Now, together, we will care before judgment comes.”

Bart Everson, by permission, Wikipedia