Incense

My fellow LCMers are starting to think I'm a bit of a pyro. This past Tuesday at the Hub, we decided to take a break from our normal schedule of talks with the younger guys in response to last week's bombings in the city. I had the guys (and girl) write short prayers for the city on pieces of paper. I explained that the Bible gives the picture of prayers from God's people being sweet-smelling incense to him. So after writing their prayers, we went outside and - you guessed it! - burned the paper-prayers in a cauldron along with some incense. A few of them actually took it seriously and wrote prayers for mercy or peace. Many wrote prayers that basically said "God, please punish the guys who did this", although in more colorful language and with a few racial slurs mixed in for good measure. I wasn't sure whether to be uncomfortable with these prayers or not. Certainly David prayed in similar ways at times. It's just that usually the only prayer we let non-believers pray is the "sinner's prayer" - and when you start asking them to pray for other purposes, sometimes it gets messy.