Misunderstood: A Prayer

Oh God of human mess,

To you oh Lord we ascribe glory and pain, of being of one Community and traversing another.

Perfectly known, perfectly loved, perfectly understood, what was it like for you to come to us and be rejected?

How did you cope with being so misunderstood? Intentions get warped, priorities choked, love seen as hate.

This human experience is a wave crashing over my head, and I see many drowning in the sea of fear and confusion.

To be so maligned by those who were supposed to rejoice over you, not to mention a world who could not understand you, is heart wrenching, and my heart is not strong enough to hold it.

Your church is no better, and many leave its hearth for the ache of misunderstanding. When an alien and exiled people exile their own, where can the rejected turn to?

Peter says to you, and maybe to us all, "where else can we go? You have the words of life.” Why then, oh Lord, do your people hold those words as knives to the throats of the perplexed?

Teach us, oh Misunderstood One, to love the doubter and to love their questions. Show us what it means to love in the midst of confusion.