bobjots : redux

A Malaysian now residing in the UK sent this to some of us KeADILan folks as an encouragement and I thought it was worth sharing :

Father give us, at this pivotal moment in Malaysia's history, a government we need not a government we deserve. We see indecision and paralysis, wickedness and injustice, corruption and venality, fear and oppression.

But you oh God are God of justice and righteousness. Deliver us oh Lord from wicked men and the insidious politics which has governed us for nearly 50 years.

Let not bigotry and extremism prevail but let the hopes of hearts everywhere beseech God for Malaysia at this critical crosssroad.

You allowed for Malaysians from Malay, Chinese, Indian and indigenous East Malaysians and others, disparate and different in our ethnic and religious identities, to come together as Malaysians.

Grant us God that we will have both the courage and imagination to show the world that men of very different colour, culture and creed can live and work together in peace, respect and mutual happiness towards a kinder, gentler, more just and compelling country - Amen

Reinhold Neibuhr who wrote the prayer

'God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change and courage to change the things we can and wisdom to distinguish one from another'

also wrote at another point:

'Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible. Men's inclination for injustice makes democracy necessary'

Let Justice roll on like a river and righteousness like a never failing stream (Amos 5:24).

Martin Luther King from the jails of Birmingham Alabama wrote:

'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!'

I am no admirer of Richard Nixon though I think of him as a man of exceptional intellect and international acumen but in severe deficit of integrity who played on the politics of fear and fear mongering instead of faith and hope. But Nixon said something poignant at his first inaugural address and I paraphrase slightly:

'As we wait for the dawn to break, let us gather the light and not curse the remaining darkness'.

Let us wait upon the Hope of our hearts in Christ and forgive the hurts of history. God's redemptive grace is at work.