This week I turned 55! And my blog turns 5. 

This is not my typical birthday post. Yet, I feel the need to write it's message. 

My heart has been heavy. Not with the weight of my years, but with the ceaseless news of these troubled times. Wars and rumors of wars. Drought. Ebola. Airline mysteries and disasters. Riots and protests. Robin Williams' untimely death. Plus my own pain and suffering.  

Everywhere, I hear fearful, frustrated, and angry voices calling upon national leaders to act. Demanding military action. Blaming. Accusing. Condemning. And my heart cowers.

I am not an activist. I am not politically savvy or intellectually robust. 

But I do have faith! Faith in One who created the heavens and the earth. Man and woman. One who delivered a whole people group by parting the Red Sea, destroying another when that same water flowed back. One who changes times and seasons. Who deposes kings and raises up others. Who gives wisdom and power and reveals mysteries. One who cries out continually to a people He longs to bring close, but people who will not listen. 

I watch. I listen. I grieve. I mourn. And, I pray!

As men look to men. And men blame men. My heart cries out, What about God?

And I remember, God's word to us in 2 Chronicles 7:13-15 At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. THEN if MY PEOPLE who are CALLED by my name will HUMBLE themselves and PRAY and SEEK MY FACE and TURN from their wicked ways, I WILL HEAR from heaven and will FORGIVE their sins and RESTORE their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place. (emphasis added) 

This week, as I begin my fifty-sixth year of life, if I could have just one birthday request it would be this: I would ask God's people to stop pointing the finger and looking only to human means to end droughts and plagues and wars. Instead, I would petition each child of God to humbly turn our hearts in prayer and repentance to the One and Only who will hear our prayers and forgive our sins and restore our lands! This would be my birthday prayer!