Today is a historic day in our country’s life.  Yesterday, it was (possibly) an even more historic for me.

Yesterday I prayed passionately for our Presidential Candidates (Praying Backwards with Ragamuffin Soul) and then later on that night I prayed for our country.  This morning, first thing I did was I got on my knees and I prayed for this country again.

And that, my friends, is the “historic” part.

You see, I’ve never been a big “let’s pray for our country” type of guy.  For a long time I’ve thought that this country is pretty much going down the poophole and praying would, if anything, simply delay the inevitable.  (This is terrible thinking and so I repent of that nonsense…)

I’ve prayed for candidates and tossed a prayer-bomb here and there, but I was never this concerned enough to get on my knees.

But I am this time.

Not concerned that the US is breaching armageddon but rather that the capital C Church is divided and that the witness of thousands have been blown because of misplaced and misguided passions.  I think it was seeing it all come together (Thanks Tony!) last night and seeing hundreds of my fellow believers pray for each other and the candidates that they didn’t support which brought me to a place of quiet humility.

And it was amazing because I had the opportunity to lead prayer with family, my wife, sue. (You can actually view our time of leading prayer via chat in Tony’s first part of this video… it was awesome!)

Chat Prayers during Pray Backwards ’08 from Tony Steward on Vimeo.

It’s actually been family where the battlefield of politics have raged.  While my bud Carlos was seeing a “division unlike he’s ever seen before”, I saw something else transpire: Close family ties being stretched, challenged, and ripped apart because of political differences and persuasions.  I’ve never gotten into such heated debates with family and forced to “do my research”, “justify myself and my position”, and feel emotions of political-insecurity.

But at the very last moment, it was with family, with my wife, where we could just sit at the feet of Christ and pray it up like nothing we’ve ever done before.

And not a moment too late.

So, this morning, when I woke up, headed down to Buckhead Church, grabbed a free cup of coffee from Starbucks and sat down to type, I looked out the window and imagined and saw a country not of citizens-divided, but rather an opportunity for unity.

Here’s hoping… and I’m still praying.