I really appreciate the way so many of you have responded to my post a couple of days ago on passionate praying. I am glad you didn’t respond defensively because that would have meant my tone was accusatory. I really wanted to know if you think passionate praying with tears is still for us today, or is that just pre-Christian drama for another time.

The answer that your response to the question, “should we tarry with tears,” has been a resounding yes! I find this very encouraging. You see, while I am dismayed by the condition of the world I am not overwhelmed by it if I know I have companions on the right side of the struggle. The burden of literacy is that I have been able to read for that past fifty plus years bible passages like, “You must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 2 Peter 3:3, 2Ti 3:1 (NIV) But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– 2 Timothy 3:1-4, In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 2 Timothy 3:12-13 (NIV)

Now I know that some of you that I count as companions in this life believe the bible is a collection of wonderful stories, not to be taken literally when it predicts the future. I respect your point of view and hope you will remain my friend but I also respectfully disagree with you. I am constantly astounded at the accuracy with which the ancient text describe modern times. Okay, I’m digressing a bit here. What I want to say it I don’t feel overwhelmed by the terror of our times, the oppression of our times or the growing anti-Christian tone of our times if I am surrounded by sober minded clear headed journey mates who can feel deeply, think sensibly and pray passionately with me. If I don’t have that luxury then I have to figure out how I am going to stay sane going forward. John on the Island of Patmos penned the book of Revelation alone so I believe it’s possible to fly solo and be “in the spirit on the Lords day.” But I would rather not agonize alone, nor do I want you to have to do that.

BTW, I am not going for sadness, I am going for sobriety. There’s a difference. I am not interested in a dour fellowship of saints who are always whining and mourning the loss of Ronald Reagan’s America. Please, give me a break. Get over it. That season is over. I want loved ones around me who are are warriors in faith; people who are broken hearted over what breaks God’s heart; people who aren’t sleep walking through the twenty first century; people who are fighting to keep our faith and pass it on to the next generation when the odds are so against us; people who are asking God for a strategy to succeed in being light in the darkness.

If you want to travel with me in ways that actually bring me hope then show some emotional energy over things that, in my my humble opinion matter most. Our nice houses,our gadgets, our toys,our luxury vehicles, our collection of celebrity connections, the fortunes of our sports teams, our golf club memberships, our buffed bodies, our impressive social circles, the names we drop, our vacation destinations, our credit cards, our bank accounts, will all evaporate someday. There is, according to scripture, “a kingdom that will know no end.” There is a government that is “on His shoulders.” Solomon said, “God has set eternity in the hearts of men.” We should weep together that some among us haven’t discovered the “eternity” that is beating in their own chest.

In the words of Todd Beamer software salesman, Sunday School teacher and father of two boys,aboard United Airlines Flight 93 which was hijacked as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Just before he tried to reclaim the aircraft from terrorist before it crash it into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, PA. he said those now famous words, “Let’s roll!”