Prayer Is Powerful

This afternoon I saw some friends  at Staples who happen to be from Mexico. They told me about their recent move into a rented house; they now live close to our house. My friends are a part of a "hidden" community of people who were driven from their native Mexico by the violence of the drug trade, and they came without going through the usual channels. Their community is large in this area. These dear people have a stable family life, close relations with one another, and they are deeply religious. They are living as responsible citizens in every way except one: they lack legal permission to be here at all. Yet I cannot find fault with them. Given the circumstances of their lives back in Mexico I would probably have fled as well. 

I  pray for these friends and for all families  who are living in our midst without the security of citizenship. They do many jobs that are low-paying, yet they don't complain.  They are grateful for the opportunity to live away from the violence, the poverty and the oftentimes terrible living conditions of their native counties. Yes they are here without legal papers. But they need our prayers.

To the people who condemn the illegal entry into the US of so many people I put a question. Have you considered that the drug lords who cause so much of the violence and disruption of civic structures in Mexico, and drive the illegal immigration northward, would not have an illegal business to protect if so many American citizens did not use illegal drugs?  When is the last time you heard a public figure condemn illegal drug use? How about a teacher? A movie star? A major athlete?

As we pray for people living without the citizenship we all enjoy, perhaps we might also pray for a halt to illegal drug use, and for  a new vision of life that finds joy in  spiritual realities that are far more powerful than drug induced fantasies. It just might go further towards helping with the "immigration problem" than any solution we have come up with so far. Prayer, affter all,  is powerful.