Here’s another prayer – featured now in my free e-book For Such a Time as This – that may help you to find words to articulate some of your thoughts and fears when you’re struggling to pray during these dark days of the coronavirus pandemic, reminding you that, however much it may feel like it, you are not alone.
Lord, I prayed for the people of Wuhan at the start of this outbreak
Lord, I prayed for the people of Wuhan at the start of this outbreak,
asking that the disease would be confined to where it started,
limited in its impact,
soon be over.
But it didn’t stay in one place,
it wasn’t restricted to a few,
and it’s still going strong,
if anything seeming to gather pace.
I prayed when coronavirus began to spread
that it would be held in check,
that measures to control it would be effective,
that a pandemic might be avoided,
but again I was to be disappointed,
for it’s rampant now,
all attempts to stop it have proven woefully inadequate,
the whole world now in its grip.
I prayed when it reached this continent,
this country,
that we could deal with it,
that few would be infected,
none might die
chaos might be avoided,
but it seems I was wasting my breath,
for thousands are unwell,
hundreds have perished,
and nations are reeling from one blow after another.
Aren’t you listening, Lord?
Can’t you hear our prayers?
I don’t understand.
Only, I do, of course,
for this isn’t your mess;
it’s ours,
this whole sorry business being, in part at least, of human making,
like so many we blame you for.
You did not wish it upon us,
and you yearn to help us through it,
your heart being heavy at the pain we endure
and fear we wrestle with.
Teach me that you do hear,
do listen,
and, in whatever ways you can,
will answer.
Amen.