Prayerful Dismantling Tyrannical Leadership

Dear God of the oppressed and the oppressor alike,

Ephesians 2:14 tells us that Christ "has broken down the dividing wall of hostility" — and I confess that some walls I have grown comfortable living behind. Some walls I have even helped to build.

John Wesley once walked into the tin mines of Cornwall and saw children no older than seven hauling ore in the dark while foremen counted coins in the daylight. He did not simply pray for those children. He opened schools. He named the foremen. He called the church to account. Wesley understood what your Spirit teaches us still: that prayer without courageous action is a lullaby we sing to soothe our own conscience.

So today I bring before You every place where power has curdled into control — in boardrooms where one voice silences twenty, in homes where love has been replaced by fear, in churches where shepherds have become wolves dressed in vestments. Tear down those walls, Lord. And begin with the walls inside me — my silence when I should speak, my comfort when others suffer.