*This diatribe was originally posted to Facebook on December 6, 2017, as a critique of faith leaders and political personalities who were the first to offer their ‘thoughts and prayers’ to family members of a recent tragedy that took place but offered very little to no help or solution to the problems that allowed for such evils to enter into the limelight of our broken culture in the first place.*

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I love it when Christians and those who have Christian-like life ideals and morals pray and extend their thoughts to victims of tragedy. It’s a beautiful thing to see how altruistic we as a people have become in this 21st century.

But what mortifies me is that we wait for tragedy to happen for us to pray. We wait for gunmen to enter churches, mosques, schools and public areas to exterminate seemingly innocent and unassuming people without the slightest qualm. We wait for bombs to go off in our markets, marathons and meeting grounds. We wait for men and women of trust to molest and degrade our children. We wait for our leaders to make mistakes and expose their marred and fallen characters once in power.

We wait to pray after everything has gone to hell and people along with it all. We wait. Why?

Why can’t we pray before it all happens? Why can’t we take our faith to the plate and put to the test by praying for people who are deranged, broken, fallen, filled with hatred and contempt; willing at any moment to snap and become just another name on a list of mass killers. Why do we wait to pray for our leaders only after news of them molesting and harassing others make the news? We ought to pray for them now.

We as believers in the God who came down to earth ought to put our feet in our mouths and put our faith to action because thoughts and prayers are only valid and worth something if we are righteous. Check the epistle of James, fifth chapter if you think I’m lying, because if we’re living ruthless and meaningless lives, uncaring and unconcerned about the glory and will of Jesus in our lives our thoughts and prayers are dung!

Trash! If all we’re doing is offering empty words that keep us from experiencing discomfort in the sight of tragedy then we are not living the life we so often proclaim to esteem and proclaim we live.

Jesus extended His hand. He got up and went. He heard of tragedy, pain, hurt, impossible issues, and death and He resolved them. He went out and He did. And He said we would do greater things than “these.”

But no, here we are, under the western mentality that by simply extending someone a few words of comfort, false comfort, albeit, we think we’re glorifying the name of Jesus.

It is to our shame how stagnant our generation has become in the representation of Jesus by simply extending our, “Thoughts and prayers” when tragedy arises. To this broken and fallen world well knowing that our heroes of the faith proved their love for God with their blood spilled on the streets in the name of love for God and man.

Thoughts and prayers… take it or leave it but our thoughts and prayers will accomplish nothing!

Better we put ourselves in the fire with people with our mouths sewn shut than utter a few meaningless words.

Our words, our thoughts, our prayers, and our faith mean nothing when they’re not backed by actions.

Jesus did it. He saved the world. About time we put our faith to action before all hell breaks loose. Before a man goes out to shoot dozens of people dead. Before an adult molests. Before a parent abuses. Before a bully is made. Before a woman is violated. Before the next head is chopped off. Before the next banker or business man is found to be corrupt. Before our next elected official is charged with sex crimes. Before….

Before…

Before it all.

And if you don’t agree with what the real Christian life ought to be like… well…

Then I offer you my thoughts and prayers.