A Prayer for a Neighbor Who Is Behaving Like an Idiot
Oh Lord, you who commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, I confess to you an utter lack of desire to love my neighbor who is behaving like an idiot. As much as I am tempted to ask you “to teach them a lesson” and “to put them in their place” and “to give them what-for,” I ask rather for the seemingly impossible: that you would perform a miracle in my heart by the power of your Holy Spirit, so that I might be freed from bitterness, hatred, and the oppressive feeling that I live ultimately in an unfair universe where neighbors get away with things that they shouldn’t and that God remains detached and uncaring. I pray this in the name of the One who loves my neighbor and me alike and who will do right by each of us in the end. Amen.
