Deidra Riggs

Author and Speaker

When the Way of the Cross Calls Us Higher

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Call me crazy. Again. But, this morning, I watched the CBS news and I waited to hear the name of the man we’ve seen on television doing unspeakable things. I wanted to know his real name. Not the nickname people have given him. Because, say what you will, he was once a little boy and not always appearing in videos that strike fear into onlookers. He is a man, created in the image of God, and I wanted to know his name.

I am not brave. I don’t know what I would do if I were wearing an orange jumpsuit on the shore. I believe, with all my heart, I would be terrified.

It is easy to want to demonize a man (or a group of people) who wish evil on others and who actually accomplish evil in the name of religion or God or god or power or anger or fear or other distortions that rest at the root of evil. It is easier, instead, to find solidarity with people upon whom evil is unleashed, especially when we share something in common with the victims. We want to know and remember and honor their names. We print them in lovely handwriting and we pray and we mourn and we offer our condolences, as we should. It is right and good to weep with those who weep, and to mourn with those who mourn.

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As people of the cross, followers of Jesus, believers, we are also called to pray for our enemies. To bless those who curse us. This call is the epitome of craziness when we make the way of the world our standard, yes?

Throughout history, we have proven it is our nature to dehumanize a person or group of people by giving them unsavory names. Stripping away the name a person’s mother gave him makes it easier to treat that person poorly and to cast them aside and to believe they are unworthy of grace or love or even the prayers of people of faith. That, my friend, is the work of the enemy, who would seek to divide us and make us forget the power available to us when we pray for those who do us wrong. The people who make us fearful and who cause us to cower or to wring our hands haven’t always been that way. Somehow, they slipped over the edge, and not a single one of us is exempt from the possibility of finding ourselves the perpetrator of evil against another human being.

What I know is this: God calls us to live differently from the status quo. He keeps pointing above the fray and to higher ground; a better way. I want to work out of my God-created self, and I’m still learning what that means. But, I have to believe God’s ways are worth it. One way to pray for our enemies is to use their actual names, and not the ones placed on them by people who fear them and who wish to destroy them. The world is watching, and we have this gift in earthen vessels.

“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that.” —Matthew 5:43-47

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So, this morning, I waited for the CBS newscaster to say the real name of this man — the name he uses among his friends. And when I heard it, I wrote it on a post-it note and stuck it to the window above my kitchen sink, where the sun pours in and I’m reminded to bless those who curse me. Those who curse us. Those who curse you.

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again. —James 5:16-18

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Prayer is a powerful thing, even when practiced by regular people. I don’t want to minimize the tragedies of our day and I don’t want to sound trite or pithy. I simply point back to the Word of God — halfway doubting, and halfway trusting that it is true — and try to remember to exercise this gift of prayer, even in the worst situations.

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Some questions for you: Why do you think Jesus instructed us to pray for our enemies? What good can possibly come of that? What changes when we pray for our enemies? What difference does it make if we use a person’s real name when we talk about them and pray for them?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Lisha Epperson

    You do grace so well Deidra. I’m here, a regular person, halfway doubting, halfway trusting – with you. Muhammad Emwazi. Amen.

  3. Katie Andraski

    I think it sends goodness into the world instead of hatred and it unhooks us from them. The Buddhists like Pema Chodron do a wonderful job explicating what it means to love our enemy with their practice of Tonglen (sp?). They helped me when I was working hard on practicing this with someone who was part of my life.

    Here’s a piece I wrote for This I Believe that might speak to you. http://thisibelieve.org/essay/34817/

    I so agree with you that we should be praying for ISIS as our prayers are very powerful.

    • Deidra

      Thank you for that link, Katie. What a beautiful, vulnerable piece. This part is especially beautiful:

      God does something, or the prayer’s own power, or the goodness being traded for evil, but some magic of goodness happens. He feeds her, my enemy, pouring oats into her manger. She steps forward. I pant as the blood shoots into my foot. The pain eases.

      The idea that my prayer for my enemy moves them forward to what God has for them is such a beautiful image. And, in their moving toward God, my pain is diminished. I’ll be pondering that for a while…

      • Katie Andraski

        Deira thank you for your grace welcoming me into your community, for your kind words here. What a great insight that I’m not sure I saw so clearly, that my prayer moves a person forward to what God has for them…

    • smoothstones

      Loved this, too. Reading your post, then Katie’s…it was like reading a very important conversation. The horse analogy in Katie’s piece spoke to me: really took me somewhere. I dreamed my horse again just last night.

  5. smoothstones

    Read this the other day: “God never shows you another man’s sin to condemn him but to intercede for him!!!” Thought I better would write that up my arm in Sharpie.

    • Deidra

      Haha!

      Last weekend, Amena Brown, in her breakout session at Jubliee, talked about watching spoken word artists pour out their hearts and choosing to pray for them rather ridicule them.

    • Deidra

      Yes! On his way to carry out such actions, “breathing murderous threats,” Saul met the Messiah and was changed forever. And, because of him, so are we.

  7. LW Lindquist

    Naming seems like such a simple thing. And yet it holds such power to humanize or dehumanize. So much I could say… Glad for what you’ve said here. Very glad.

  8. Kim Hyland

    I think in praying for our enemies our hearts are set right. We’re reminded how we were once enemies of God and have been reconciled through grace. I don’t imagine the unforgiving servant would have responded so harshly to his debtor had he been praying for him.

    I came across this today regarding Mohammed Emzawi:
    “Diane Foley, the mother of journalist James Foley, who was also killed by the group, told The Times of London: ‘It saddens me, his continued hatred. He felt wronged, now we hate him — now that just prolongs the hatred. We need to end it. As a mum I forgive him. You know, the whole thing is tragic — an ongoing tragedy’.”
    (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/27/389530763/families-of-isis-victims-react-to-identification-of-jihadi-john)

    “As a mum, I forgive him.” Speechless.

  10. pastordt

    I love this, Deidra. And I think praying for our enemies changes us, first of all. It stops us short and reminds us that we are all connected, like it or not. And I think it makes room for God’s Spirit to work change in them, too. Of course, they have to be receptive somewhere, somehow. But not nearly so much as we like to think, at least if we actually believe what the Bible says about grace, what Jesus modeled: that love/mercy/forgiveness come before we repent. There’s a wonderful chemistry between the two that I don’t pretend to understand, but we’ve got to hang onto what comes first, right? And I love praying for anyone by name. Names are important for all kinds of reasons, the primary one you listed – to humanize every person. To make them real in our minds. To remember that we are more alike than we are different. Thank you

  11. Jennifer

    wow…you did it again….deep girl.
    i was surprised how easy these answers came to me.: Why do you think Jesus instructed us to pray for our enemies?( We change their hearts , and evn our nature…when we pray for them.)
    What good can possibly come of that?( We build our compassion, wow..and perhaps even theirs, too.)
    What changes when we pray for our enemies?(Their hearts change. Minds, and even sometimes. Souls.)
    What difference does it make if we use a person’s real name when we talk about them and pray for them?( because beyond all lf it, is sadness, hurt and fear…and maybe lots more…condenation, grief and shame.)…thank you.

    I love this,it just revolutionized me: “One way to pray for our enemies is to use their actual names, and not the ones placed on them by people who fear them and who wish to destroy them.”

  12. CHERRILYNN BISBANO

    Amen I have been praying for all of them. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. May they do it willingly.

  13. Karen

    Thanks for this powerful reminder. I am ashamed to say that not once had it occurred to me to pray for him. How sad is that…….knowing that it is the single most powerful thing I can do from here!

  14. Lee Gee

    Humbled. Convicted. Reminded. And once again able to see that our prayers lift up God in our hearts and if God be lifted up then He will draw all men unto Himself. God is not a respecter of persons nor should I be. And as His, I am to be as Him. Your grace filled words here Deidra spoke loudly to my spirit. Thank you for this powerful reminder humbly written. These words caused me to repent and turn from my own form of evil -apathy – taking my faith for granted. So I can once again seek Him and pray. For my enemy and for the enemy of my soul. I am so grateful for these words. Thank you.