Heaven’s above, there is plenty to pray for now

Shootings, storms, death, demagogues and unfinished elections... is there a common cause for the world’s woes?

DEAR God,

Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve prayed, so please forgive me my trespasses. I’ll make sure I forgive those who trespass against me.

Also, because my most recent prayers were for fairly shallow things such as how my sports teams would go, I fully accept it if I’m getting the side-eyes at the moment.

It’s just that as more horrific events unfolded on Earth this week we were asked on our various social media platforms to pray for Las Vegas.

When hearing of that senseless tragedy many already naturally prayed for the lives lost and the lives that are grieving those losses. Those that do actually pray, never need it suggested to them that they should do something like that.

I wonder whether the people who write things like ‘‘pray for…’’ on their social media, then go and do exactly that after they’ve posted.

So, yes. Let’s please put the shocked and mourning people of Las Vegas on the list.

In fact while we’re at it, can we also add the rest of North America.

That includes Puerto Rico, the latest part of that country affected by devastating storms which have flattened lives and flooded cities.

Was that partly your fault? According to the Bible you have form for causing those, just saying.

Actually, on further consideration… climate change probably carries more responsibility, so scratch that. Please forgive my impetuousness.

While we are praying for those suffering, we could add the 800,000 Rohingya people who are being forced to squeeze into one of the world’s largest refugee camps in Bangladesh as they flee ethnically cleansing in Myanmar.

We can also add the people of Central African Republic. Their country has been has been wracked by sectarian violence for the past five years and thousands more lives are at risk as aid workers are being forced out by the escalating violence.

So, there you go. I’ve prayed for Las Vegas, the Rohingya, Central Africa Republic… what else is there?

Oh yes. Something quite unnerving happened this week when the leader of the country with a lion’s share of the world’s nuclear weapons made a cryptic comment about ‘‘the calm before the storm’’.

He was asked to clarify that comment but all he did was wink and said ‘‘you’ll find out’’. The world is trying not to panic but this guy hasn’t proved to be the most sensible and reasoned of world leaders so can we just make this a general prayer for the world?

Because then that also covers Aotearoa, which two weeks after an election, is a bit in limbo as it still doesn’t have any head prefects.

God, this is turning into quite a list. Sorry for laying all this on you – especially when the more one considers all these things, and all the times we’ve been asked on social media to pay for a city that’s suffered a tragedy, the more one realises that actually you had nothing to do with them.

Apologies, for bothering you God. There’s probably not a lot you can do, really. Not when the real problem is – us. If only humans could just stop causing suffering and harm to other humans.

Amen.

Sorry for laying all this on you, God – especially when actually you had nothing to do with them.’