Afghanistan, A Prayer

Some mistakes,

Cannot be fixed

They lie shattered on the floor–

in pieces so tiny that you can’t even sweep them up

without cutting yourself.

I can’t help but think God, that we broke Afghanistan

and then we left it shattered, for someone else

to clean up,

and sustain the injuries.

And thoughts and prayers

aren’t going to do much

in a situation like this

But I know that I too bear some

responsibility for the glass upon the floor.

And maybe God, next time, we can stay out of the China Shop

where we don’t belong

so we don’t break

countries

into pieces anymore.

Not breaking things seems a good prayer to make God.

Help us not to break things,

I pray.

Amen.

Feel free to share and adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.

One thought on “Afghanistan, A Prayer”

  1. Where we don’t belong
    Tough line since we were there in Afghanistan because of 9/11

    We stayed too long perhaps, yes.

    It’s not always about us

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