NDOP 2007
Category: Faith... Local...
Posted Thursday, May 03, 2007 at 04:39 PM [GMT-6]

I bicycled downtown at noon today to attend the local observance of the National Day of Prayer. (I could get away with the cycling thing as the service was held outside, in the nice plaza area of downtown. I was also careful to sit downwind of the other attendees, since I had completed a 20 mile ride an hour earlier. But I digress.)

I haven't been to an NDOP ceremony in several years. The crowd was smaller than I expected -- I counted about a hundred in attendance -- but the coordinator said they'd printed only 50 programs so perhaps more people than usual showed up. It was certainly a pretty enough day for it, mild and still and everything fresh from yesterday's deluge.

As always, I'm intrigued by who shows up for these public displays of faith. With the exception of the pastor of First Presbyterian Church, those on the program were from the smaller congregations in Midland. And since the event is coordinated by the Ministerial Alliance, those churches who don't participate in that organization seem to also not promote or participate in the events it's associated with. That leaves out entire denominations, as well as some of the largest congregations in the area. That's a shame. I'm not sure how we can pray for unity and healing of spirit in our nation when we can't even get there in our churches.

Of course, NDOP -- and prayer in general -- isn't really a corporate activity. It's individual, one-on-one with God, and anyone who looks to a church governing body to decide when and how to engage in prayer has got bigger problems than mere inter-denominational politics.

I didn't see a lot of the folks in attendance who were being prayed for. I recognized one city councilman, but no judges, law enforcement officials, or other county and city officials. Of course, I don't know everyone in those roles (and I did keep myself somewhat sequestered for the reasons discussed above), but I do know that in some of the past observances, those folks have turned out in bigger numbers.

Still, it was a good time, and a reminder of just how blessed we are to be able to assemble openly like that and invoke the name of our God. I didn't see anyone anxiously searching the streets for signs of homicide bombers, nor were there lines of soldiers or policemen ringing us to make sure we didn't step over some imaginary line. And even if many of those government officials I referred to didn't appear, I know well that an astounding number of them are people of strong faith, and they rely daily on that faith. Midland is special that way.