A Theme Song & a Prayer

I watch CNN some evenings. It's the only English language channel and I like the feeling of being connected to the rest of the world in my own language. Since I've been here, there have been floods and fires in Australia, uprisings in the Arab world, an earthquake in Christchurch, and the horror of earthquake and tsunami and nuclear accident combined in Japan. I've watched all these events on CNN and have become increasingly disturbed by the nature of their news cycle; every disaster has its own theme music - haunting, emotional riffs played over floating close-ups of iconic images. Every news reader has the same mannerisms. Particularly gripping footage is repeated over and over again until it loses its grip on the viewer, and the same set of immaculate reporters file the same stories every hour, using the same set of adjectives. CNN, it seems to me, should be reprimanded for dramatising human suffering - for giving it the Hollywood gloss and orchestral music, for seeking to entertain over educating. (I should mention that as part of this agenda, devilishly attractive weathermen-and-women do front up to the camera on a regular basis, so it's not all bad.) On the whole, I'm grateful for the opportunity to be connected; I just wish they wouldn't treat us like idiots in the process.

Of course, CNN provides a comic aspect, in the form of some of the senior anchors; Becky Anderson and Richard Quest, for instance. Becky, who has a way of frowning deeply with one eyebrow and pressing her fingertips together just so, and Richard, who is a parody of a British twat with exaggerated gestures and a rasping voice. And if anyone's familiar with A Current Affair in Australia, you'll be pleased to know that Anna Coren, queen of the painful segway and butt of many Chaser parodies, has found her niche reporting from the Asia-Pacific region to a worldwide audience.

I don't know how to pray for Japan. I really don't. So I'm grateful for people like John Piper who can remind us how to pray at times like these:

Father in heaven, you are the absolute Sovereign over the shaking of the earth, the rising of the sea, and the raging of the waves. We tremble at your power and bow before your unsearchable judgments and inscrutable ways. We cover our faces and kiss your omnipotent hand. We fall helpless to the floor in prayer and feel how fragile the very ground is beneath our knees.

O God, we humble ourselves under your holy majesty and repent. In a moment—in the twinkling of an eye—we too could be swept away. We are not more deserving of firm ground than our fellowmen in Japan. We too are flesh. We have bodies and homes and cars and family and precious places. We know that if we were treated according to our sins, who could stand? All of it would be gone in a moment. So in this dark hour we turn against our sins, not against you.

And we cry for mercy for Japan. Mercy, Father. Not for what they or we deserve. But mercy.

Have you not encouraged us in this? Have we not heard a hundred times in your Word the riches of your kindness, forbearance, and patience? Do you not a thousand times withhold your judgments, leading your rebellious world toward repentance? Yes, Lord. For your ways are not our ways, and your thoughts are not our thoughts.

Grant, O God, that the wicked will forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Grant us, your sinful creatures, to return to you, that you may have compassion. For surely you will abundantly pardon. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus, your beloved Son, will be saved.

May every heart-breaking loss—millions upon millions of losses—be healed by the wounded hands of the risen Christ. You are not unacquainted with your creatures' pain. You did not spare your own Son, but gave him up for us all.

In Jesus you tasted loss. In Jesus you shared the overwhelming flood of our sorrows and suffering. In Jesus you are a sympathetic Priest in the midst of our pain.

Deal tenderly now, Father, with this fragile people. Woo them. Win them. Save them.

And may the floods they so much dread make blessings break upon their head.

O let them not judge you with feeble sense, but trust you for your grace. And so behind this providence, soon find a smiling face.

In Jesus’ merciful name, Amen.

from www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/a-prayer-for-japan