[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 21, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1922-S1928]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
60TH NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Pryor and myself, I
ask unanimous consent that the transcript of the 60th Annual National
Prayer Breakfast be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Senator Mark Pryor: Good morning. Thank you all for being
here. It's great to have you here. I want to thank all of you
for making your way to this very special event in the life of
our country and our world. We invited you, and you came, and
we appreciate it. When I say ``we'' I mean co-chair Jeff
Sessions of Alabama and many of the members of the U.S.
Congress who are the real life hosts of this breakfast this
morning. On behalf of all of us, the House and the Senate
members, we certainly want to say thank you for joining us
here this morning and thank you for praying and for building
friendships and to try to make this a better world.
Senator Jeff Sessions: As with all our Prayer Breakfasts
over the last six decades, we are gathering in the Spirit of
Jesus of Nazareth. He was open, curious, compassionate,
inclusive and humble--a good example for all of us in public
life and for all of us living anywhere for that matter. He
was loving, in a word, and that is the way to describe the
spirit in which we attempt to gather in today.
Senator Pryor: Let us just join together in the spirit of
reverent prayer: God of the universe and of each and every
one of us, we welcome your presence, your truth and your love
to our event. Bless us we pray with the change of heart and
change of mind we all need today. We love you and we want to
draw near to you this morning.
Senator Sessions: In the spirit of love, I pray that
everything we do and say from this head table and from around
each table would be pleasing to you. Thank you for the good
food and fellowship we enjoy at this breakfast and may your
Spirit fill this great hall, Amen.
Mark and I and many, many others have been working on, and
praying for, this remarkable breakfast for months now and we
are all excited to share it with you. I think we have all had
two different experiences of what can happen when we bring
faith into the world of government and business. Sometimes it
creates conflict and when we look at our planet's history,
even wars. But at other times, more often really, true faith
can be a reconciling force of amazing power, a power that can
make an entire society better. As Ambassador Andrew Young
said last night at the Southeastern dinner, the civil rights
movement, the non-violent movement that overcame bigotry and
hatred in a way that could not have been done any other way,
was done in the Spirit of Jesus.
We all have somewhat different religious histories. In my
faith walk as I studied the life of Jesus, it seems His
approach was always to see the people who are considered to
be outsiders, or who had withdrawn, He tried to bring them
all in. All those lepers, Samaritans and disabled people and
poor people and folks like the woman at the well--they had
been pushed out, or had withdrawn, but Jesus brought them in.
I think that is the kind of approach we want to embrace in
this breakfast and everything that flows out of it. We want
to bring everyone in and to be in harmony with God's will and
to share in God's love.
Senator Pryor: Senators have been meeting in a breakfast
group for over six decades now. As friends, we gather to pray
every Wednesday when the Senate is in session. To give you a
picture of how long that group has been in existence, the
Senate breakfast group has met about one time for every
person in this room. We come together to pray for each other
and work for the Senate and of course for the country. Once a
year we invite you all into the fellowship together to pray
for world leaders and especially for our President.
Some of you have heard that things can be better in
Congress and that is true. I think a good place to start
would be to remember just a few simple, yet powerful words.
Love one another as I have loved you. Forgive and you will be
forgiven. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you. We don't need a constitutional amendment or some big
Congressional reform, we just need to start acting better and
Jesus gives us the place to start. It's simple but it's hard.
We need to love and pray for people who disagree with us. We
hope you will be loving and be praying for us and with us
this morning in this special time today and when you return
home.
I have a letter from a very special friend of ours and he
writes to the folks who are attending the National Prayer
Breakfast.
Letter from Rev. Billy Graham read by Senator Pryor:
I want to convey my personal greetings to each of you
assembled this morning for the National Prayer Breakfast. I
miss being with you all, having been a part of this annual
event sponsored by the House and Senate prayer group since
the very beginning, often as a speaker. Though age and health
prevent me from being there in person, I am with you in
spirit and you are in my heart.
I want to say a special word of encouragement to the many
friends meeting today from across the country and across the
world, especially President Obama and his wife Michelle and
Vice President Joseph
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Biden and his wife Jill for whom I pray every day as the
Scriptures command us to do. The National Prayer Breakfast is
one of the most amazing gatherings as people from most of the
nations of the world, representing every race, color, creed,
religion and political affiliation, or none, come together in
the name of Jesus to focus on his teachings and follow his
example of how to live and love each other.
Throughout my ministry spanning more than 60 years, I have
tried to lift up the name of Jesus to audiences and
individuals in many of the countries you represent today
against the backdrop of polarization in our nation this
election year and the tensions across the globe due to war,
disease, poverty and other problems. I pray that foundation
of unity you embody around the person of Jesus may be an
example to the world and a catalyst for peace, freedom and
reconciliation as each of us discovers in our own hearts the
love and forgiveness He offers to those who seek and turn to
him in repentance and faith. May God richly bless your time
of fellowship and inspiration this morning. And may the Lord
give each of you a special sense of the Spirit as you pray
together and pray in Jesus' name, signed Billy Graham.
Senator Sessions: Jesus said that if we had faith as small
as a mustard seed, we could move mountains. We experience a
similar miracle when we hear the size of the voice that comes
out of the relatively small body of our singer, Jackie
Evancho. She is eleven. God has given her an extraordinary
gift and we are thrilled she is here to share it with us.
Please welcome Jackie Evancho.
Song ``To Believe'', sung by Miss Jackie Evancho
Senator Pryor: Wow, thank you Jackie. That was phenomenal.
Thank you so much. We have quite the head table here. We have
the runner up to America's Got Talent, the winner of the
Heisman Trophy, the winner of the Nobel Prize and the most
powerful woman in American history, so thank you all for
being here.
Senator Sessions: Pretty impressive but when we come before
God, all the fancy titles are brought down and the humble
regular people are raised up. We are all equally of value
before our Creator. Allow me to introduce some of our
presenters who will come to the podium when their turn
arises. As a Senator representing the national champion
Alabama--I never get tired of slipping that in--I get to
introduce the football player. We are proud to have a Baylor
Bear with us, Mr. Robert Griffin III, RG3, the winner of the
2011 Heisman Trophy. He excelled at finishing drives and
games so we have asked him to do our closing prayer.
We always honor our nation's military each year by asking
one of their own to be a part of the program. Today we are
proud to have Colonel Kelly Martin, an active duty Air Force
officer who serves in the operations directorate of the Joint
Staff at the Pentagon. During her career as a pilot, she did
countless in-flight refueling, so she knows a thing or two
about prayer. She will lead us in a prayer for American
national leaders.
Next is Congressman and Dr. Paul Broun from Georgia. Both
he and Congressman McIntyre lead the House breakfast group.
Every ship has an anchor and in our Senate breakfast prayer
group, Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii has been our anchor for
many years. We are going to miss him when he retires. We have
asked him to say our prayer for world leaders. I have not
known anyone, from Alabama or elsewhere, who has better lived
their life in the Spirit of Jesus than has Danny Akaka.
Danny, thank you for all you do to make the Senate and our
government and nation a better place.
We are also joined by our colleague, Dr. Tom Coburn who
passionately represents the people of Oklahoma and the
Senate. He will give us a reading from the Scriptures. If you
know Tom, you know that his faith impacts his life, and we
all know that. Next, I have the honor and privilege of
introducing my wife, Mrs. Mary Sessions, my partner for 42
years who has enabled me to be able to serve, and has
provided us with three children and five grandchildren.
We are very grateful once again to welcome the First Lady
of the United States, Michelle Obama. None of us can even
imagine the burdens that you carry as the spouse and the
leader of our nation. We thank you and pray for you and honor
your work on the behalf of the health of our nation's
children and all Americans.
Senator Pryor: Mr. President, did you hear the little thing
about the national championship? This year it was Alabama,
last year it was Auburn, it never stops. You see what I have
to put up with?
What most people don't fully realize is that the government
is a team sport. We are all thankful to have our tireless and
passionate Vice President running all over the country and
all over the world to accomplish our country's most important
work, Vice President Joe Biden.
The next person I want to introduce is my wife, Jill Pryor,
the best person in the world.
You have already met Jackie Evancho. She is going to sing
one more song in a few minutes but I think after that she has
to leave here and go study for a spelling test. Sitting next
to her is her mother, the proudest mother in the room, Mrs.
Lisa Evancho. Thank you both for being here.
Shortly we are going to hear a greeting from our
counterparts who lead the House prayer breakfast group. They
make those of us at the head table feel extra safe because
one is a doctor and the other is a black belt in Tae Kwando.
One kind of tears you up and one tears you down, namely
Congressman MacIntyre of North Carolina and Congressman Broun
of Georgia. Thank you for being here.
One of the people in the room who needs no introduction is
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. We thank her for her inspiring
service to the country and her support for the prayer
breakfast over the years. We look forward to the Scripture
that she is about to read. Madam Leader.
Representative Nancy Pelosi: Thank you very much to Senator
Pryor for the invitation to read from the Holy Scriptures
this morning. Let us all be grateful for the fellowship that
brings us all together with our President of the United
States and the First Lady, the Vice President--who said after
Jackie finished singing, ``now I know how the angels sound,
so beautiful''--the fellowship that brings us together as
colleagues, our international guests and of course most of
all our men and women in uniform who give us the opportunity
to exercise freely our faith.
I am honored for the opportunity to read from the Holy
Scriptures, from the Old Testament. When I was asked by
Senator Pryor to do so, I went right to Solomon. We all know
over the ages that King Solomon has been recognized for his
great wisdom, but it is really important to note that his
wisdom sprang from humility, and that must be our prayer.
Solomon's prayer is heralded in at least two books of the
Bible, the Second Book of Chronicles and the First Book of
Kings. A reading from the First Book of Kings:
God appeared to Solomon in a dream during the night. God
said, ``ask what you would like me to give to you.'' Solomon
replied, ``You showed most faithful love to your servant
David, my father. When he lived his life before you in
faithfulness and uprightness and in integrity of heart, you
have continued this most faithful love to him by allowing his
son to sit on the throne today. Now my God, you have made me
your servant king in succession to David, my father.
``But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership and
here is your servant surrounded by your people whom you have
chosen, of people so numerous that its number cannot be
counted or reckoned.'' So Solomon said, ``give your servant a
heart to understand how to govern your people, how to discern
between good and evil, for how could one otherwise govern
such a great people as yours?'' It pleased God that Solomon
should have asked for this. ``Since you have asked for
this,'' God said, ``and not asked for long life for yourself
or riches or vengeance upon your enemies, but have asked for
discerning judgment for yourself here and now, I do what you
ask. I give you wisdom and understanding as no one has ever
had before and no one will have after you.'' The whole world
sought audience with Solomon to know the wisdom God had put
in his heart.
May our message from this reading be that we have the
humility to ask God for what pleases him so that we can do
his work. Amen.
Representative Paul Broun: Good morning. I am Dr. Paul
Broun. I am a physician and a Representative from the 10th
Congressional District in Georgia, and a Republican. And this
is my friend, Mike McIntyre. As Senator Pryor just told you,
he is a black belt so I am going to be careful with what I am
going to say about him. He is a Democrat, a blue dog
Democrat, who represents North Carolina.
I am also a member of the Gideons, so if you didn't have a
Bible in your hotel room, please let me know and we will be
sure to get you one. In fact, I am a Gideon because it was a
Gideon Bible that led me to the Lord. I accepted Him as my
Lord and Savior some time ago. We thank you for coming to the
breakfast today, especially our honored guests from all
around the world. We are up here to bring greetings from our
weekly Congressional House breakfast group and to give you a
bit of a sense of what goes on there.
We pray, we study the Scriptures, we share our family
struggles and needs and our personal needs. We even try to
sing sometimes. We call it the best hour of the week because
it absolutely is. It is where Democrats and Republicans can
come together, put politics aside, put partisanship aside.
And we are just personal friends, brothers and sisters in
Christ. And we worship our God together.
Over 25 years ago Jesus Christ changed my life when I
accepted him as my personal Lord and Savior. He gave me not
only a personal peace but he gave me a purpose in my life to
serve him and to live for him. There is no rule that says I
have to check my faith when I go through the doors of the
House chambers. I could not do that if I wanted to. I am
always eager to talk about what God has done for me and in my
life and how he has changed me, how he saved me and made me a
child of God. I am thankful for our House group. The people
who founded the United States were people who prayed, they
knew the Scriptures. It is good for the whole nation to
follow their example in honoring the God that created each
and every one of us and his Son who died for us all.
Representative Mike McIntyre: Thank you Paul. I am Mike
McIntyre. Serving in Congress is a great privilege but it is
also a tremendous challenge. I am very thankful that I get to
meet with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to come
together in our breakfast group where we can share heart to
heart.
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Washington, D.C. usually focuses just on the surface, on
the labels and where you come from and who you are supposed
to be identified with. Our weekly group allows us to go
deeper and to build friendships. I also want to tell you
about a new tradition. During the first vote of each week on
Monday or Tuesday night, depending on when we go into
session, several House members step across the hall in room
219 and leave labels at the door and pray like Solomon of the
Old Testament for wisdom for that week so that we will make
the right decisions.
When I am back in my district, I often have people come up
to me and express concerns or complain about Washington, D.C.
Can you imagine that? They will go on for 30 minutes and
usually after I have listened carefully to all that they are
saying, I will say: ``Would you pray for us that we will make
the right decisions; if it's that important to you or to your
family or to your business or to your school or our country,
would you take the time to pray for us that we will make the
right decision?'' I have never had anybody refuse to do that
when I have asked them. Like Nehemiah in the Old Testament,
we want to build a wall of prayer around our nation's
capital. You can put a stone or a brick in that wall of
prayer if you would take five minutes each week to join us in
prayer, and you could choose the time. If you go to the
Congressional Prayer Caucus' website and say, ``You know
what, Mike, I will pray for you and for our President and all
our leaders at all levels of government.'' It is that
important. Because you see, the true source of power is not
found in the halls of Congress or in the Oval Office of the
West Wing or in the chambers of the Supreme Court. It is
found when we are on our knees before the throne of grace,
before all mighty God asking for his help. Would you please
join us in that effort? That is something you can do that
would go beyond today. I think you will agree that our
country is worth it. God bless you all and thank you very
much.
Colonel Kelly Martin, U.S.A.F.: Please join me now in a
prayer for our national leaders. Lord, it is with a humble
heart that we come before you today and ask for a special
measure of grace and wisdom to be given to the men and women
who lead our nation. For you know that it is the fear of the
Lord that is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. And
it is by your grace and love that you arm us with the
strength and guide our steps towards what is perfect.
Leadership is not easy and good leadership is rare and of
great value, but great leadership comes only from you.
Throughout our nation's history, you have blessed us with a
legacy of leaders who served with excellence and we are
grateful that this blessing continues today. Thank you for
each and every one of our leaders and their willingness to
serve our nation, its' people, and, ultimately, to serve you.
I ask that in the heat of battle, you give our leaders
clarity of mind and the courage to make right decisions
especially when it is not convenient or expedient. Give them
the faith to always seek you, a hope that will always sustain
them and, most importantly, give them a love that will unite
them. We ask that you bless our leaders, protect and watch
over them, give them a peace that passes understanding; bless
their families and continue to bless the United States of
America. I pray this in your Son's name, amen.
Senator Tom Coburn: Good morning. I have the privilege of
reading from the New Testament Scriptures. The passage that I
want to read today has to do with the most powerful force the
world has ever known, love. In this room, we have people from
well over 100 different countries, all colors, all aspects of
faith and maybe from a few different points of view.
Jesus said to him, ``you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.''
This is the first and the greatest commandment and the second
is like it, that you should love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets. A
new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I
have loved you, that you also love one another. This is my
commandment to you that you love one another as I have loved
you, greater love has no one than this than to lay down ones
life for his friends.
The power of love is manifested in the subtleness and the
happiness of our heart because as we give love and
sacrificial love, that is the only way, our lives are truly
fulfilled, by giving away our life. We have great examples of
that in our military, in our leaders as they sacrifice their
life and time and families, but the fact is, we are commanded
to do that. May God bless the reading of his Word.
Senator Daniel Akaka: Let me add my aloha and welcome to
all of you gathered here at the 60th National Prayer
Breakfast. Let us pray. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts,
heaven and earth are filled with your glory. We come to you
to pray for world leaders. Give them your wisdom to deal with
the challenging problems of our time; may your Spirit rest
upon them as they seek to empower people to lead quiet and
peaceful lives in all Godliness and honesty. Send out your
light and lead our world leaders with your truth. Bring them
through strife and warfare to lasting peace, uniting them for
the glory of your name. As they put aside selfish ambition,
make them instruments of your will to carry out your purposes
in our world. We pray this in your sovereign name, amen.
Senator Pryor: When we take the long view of history, it is
pretty clear that ideas are more powerful than money or guns
or even governments. So if we follow that logic, ideas about
God would be the most powerful of all. One of the most
precious resources of the community of faith are those women
and men who help us think deeply and clearly about God, about
truth and about responsibility. Eric Metaxas has been a
friend of this breakfast for many years, so let that be a
warning to all of you, if you come too often, we may ask you
to speak. He has written two New York Times best sellers, 30
children's books, has been part of the Veggie Tale series,
and he has also debated the existence of God in academic
settings all over the world. I first became aware of him
through his book, ``Amazing Grace,'' about William
Wilberforce whose life makes a great guide book for anyone
who is serving in government. I just finished another book of
his, about another great public role model, ``Dietrich
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy''. Ladies and
gentlemen, Eric Metaxas.
Mr. Eric Metaxas: Good morning to all of you, honored
guests from around the world, from this great nation, mostly
to our President and First Lady. What an honor to be here.
Now, I have to ask, I want to know how many people are here
if you don't mind, just indulge me, would you raise your hand
if you are here and I just want to get a quick . . . okay,
well that was four. All right, well they said four thousand.
Let me just say up front, I am not a morning person but it
is nonetheless an honor to speak at this august
extraordinarily early gathering. I know it is an august
gathering because they charged 175 dollars for breakfast. I
don't want to start out by being negative but I think there
may be some kind of money laundering thing kind of happening
here. I am speaking truth to power people, the price gauging,
it needs to stop. Even as a member of the elite one per cent,
I cannot afford this.
We joke, but I know who puts this event on. They are a
highly secret, indeed a nefarious organization. They call
themselves ``the family.'' You see, the family not only runs
this event, they run everything that is happening in the
world. We, and of course I mean the President and I most
specifically, are all their puppets. The President knows what
I mean. He cannot admit this publicly, obviously, but
appearing here this morning we are simply doing their
bidding. Every U.S. President has been elected by them except
for Warren G. Harding. No one knows how Warren Harding was
able to buck that trend but we know that he paid dearly for
it, most notably by being saddled with the name Warren G.
Harding.
I am not a politician so when I see a dais like this, I
immediately think of those wonderful Dean Martin roasts from
the 70's. That was my favorite show next to Sanford and Son.
I am being honest with you now and forgive me if I pretend
that I am up here with Ruth Buzzi, Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart,
Red Buttons, Charlie Callas, Foster Brooks and Rich Little. I
am being honest, that is who I wish were up here. And to
those of you who are actually up here, I apologize from the
bottom of Don Rickles' heart, I am sorry.
Okay, it is a National Prayer Breakfast, maybe we should
get serious and say something about prayer . . . nah. Okay,
seriously though, what is prayer? The real question is what
is prayer? Prayer is real faith in God, it is not phony
religiosity. It is not, `oh wouldst thou who art sovereign of
the universe take this arcane verbiage as evidence that we
believe that thou art an old fashioned and unpleasant and
easily annoyed and even cranky deity, and that to get thy
magnificent attention and so as not to annoy thee, we must
needs employ wooden and archaic and religious sounding
language.'
That, my friends, is not prayer. That is, to use the
current terminology, a lot of pious baloney. Who said that, I
believe it was Nancy Pelosi? It was someone on the couch, but
I can't remember. But the point is, pious baloney is not
prayer, it is not faith in the God of Scripture. Imagine
talking to Jesus that way--he would almost laugh at you.
Imagine if we talked to him that way. Prayer is from the
heart. We don't try to fool God with phony religiosity. Adam
and Eve tried that with a fig leaf once that did not go so
well.
And this gets to my theme this morning--the difference
between religion or religiosity and real faith in God. We all
know people who go to church but who do not show the love of
Jesus. We know people who know Scripture but sometimes use it
as a weapon. Real prayer and real faith is not religious, it
is from the heart. It is honest, it is real. I have had the
privilege of writing about two men, Wilberforce and
Bonhoeffer, whose lives illustrate the difference between
what mere religiosity and actually knowing what serving God
is. Let me first quickly tell you personally how I came to
see the difference between these two utterly different
things.
First of all, I am the son of European immigrants who met
in an English class in New York City in 1956. And I thank the
Lord that my parents are in the room this morning. My dad is
Greek, hence my surname, Metaxas. My mom is German, hence my
deep love for Siegfried and Roy. Now, when you have one Greek
parent, you are raised Greek, forget about the German stuff.
Greeks believe that being Greek is the most important thing
in the world. Now I am 50 per cent Greek but I have always
tried to be more than 50 per cent Greek but I have never been
able to break the fifty per cent barrier, a little bit like
brother Mitt.
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I grew up of course in the Greek Orthodox Church. I was an
altar boy and had a modicum of faith, a mostly nominal,
cultural faith. I thought of myself as a Christian but then I
went to Yale University. Of course, it is the dream come true
for every son of working class European immigrants. But the
reality is that Yale, and most of our other universities but
especially Yale, is a very secular place, aggressively
secular. What little modicum of faith I had was seriously
challenged. The idea of God really is ignored or even sneered
at. By the time I graduated I was quite sure that it was
wrong to be serious about the Bible or to take Jesus
seriously, that it was hopelessly parochial and divisive. I
was not sure what was supposed to replace it but I was
confused. I guess I was lost. I wanted to be a writer. I was
not terribly successful. I floundered and then I drifted,
then I floundered some more, then I drifted and floundered
together, which you think is easy.
Eventually things got so bad I moved back in with my
parents, which I do not recommend. I specifically do not
recommend moving in with my parents. I joke, but it was in
fact a very tough time for me. I am being serious now. I
suffered then, during that period, from real, genuine
depression. I still struggle with that. This was a very
painful, soul searching time in my life. I took a really
depressing job which my parents forced me to take, thank you
very much. And while I was at this job, this miserable job,
thank you mom and dad, I met a man of some faith. And he
begins to share his faith with me, this secular Yale
agnostic, and I was in enough pain that I was willing to
listen a little bit to what he had to say. He was an
Episcopalian and I figured it was safe--they don't really
believe that stuff anyway. So I said ``yeah, you can keep
talking.'' But he turned out to be one those Episcopalians
who actually believed this stuff and knew the Bible backwards
and forwards and I was really challenged. We would have a lot
of conversations.
I was not ready to accept what he was saying, not ready to
pray, to attend a Bible study, to go to church or to become a
weird born again Christian. But I was in enough pain to keep
listening. This friend of mine said to me that I should pray
that God would reveal himself to me--which seemed absurd
because I thought: I don't know if he's there so I don't
really want to pray to the oxygen in the room, to whom shall
I pray if he is not there? It is a conundrum you see. But
sometimes when you are in enough pain, and I was, you do
silly things--and I did pray. And I said, in my anguish, and
it was very real anguish. I said, ``God if you are there,
please reveal yourself to me; punch a hole through the
sheetrock, wave to me, say hello, show yourself to me.'' I
was desperate. Every now and again I would pray that prayer,
I would be jogging and I would pray that prayer, ``God help
me, I need help.'' It was an honest prayer. And prayers come
from a place of honesty, not religiosity. If you can say
``help me Lord,'' God hears that prayer.
Then one night during this time, around my 25th birthday, I
had a dream. We don't have time to go into it this morning
but it was an amazing dream. If you want to hear the story of
this amazing dream you can go to my website: EricMetaxas.com.
It is an amazing thing and it changed my life. God came into
my life, Jesus came into my life, and it is all true except
the part about the UFO and the Sasquatch which I made up. But
seriously, watch that if you don't mind because it really
happened, it is not made up.
And when God came into my life overnight and He answered
that prayer, I wondered why hadn't I heard this before? Why
did I have to suffer not knowing? Why? I think part of the
reason is that I had rejected a phony religious idea of God.
Not God as he really is because when I encountered God as he
really is, I knew that is what my heart is longing for. That
is the answer. He is the answer to my pain and all my
questions. He is real and He loves me despite everything I
have done. He is not some moral code. He is not some energy
force. He is alive. He is a person. He knows everything about
me and about you. He knows my story; He knows your story,
every detail. He knows your deepest fears. He knows the
terrible selfish things you have done that have hurt others
and He still loves you. And He knows the hurt that others
have caused you. He knows us. He is alive. He is not a joy
killing bummer or some moralistic church lady. He is the most
wonderful person, capital ``P'', imaginable. In fact, his
name is Wonderful. Now, who would reject that?
So at that point, I realized everything I rejected about
God was actually not God. It was just dead religion. It was
phoniness. It was people who go to church and do not show the
love of Jesus. It was people who know the Bible and use it as
a weapon, people who do not practice what they preach, people
who are indifferent to the poor and suffering, people, who
use religion as a way to exclude others from their group,
people who use religion as a way to judge others. I had
rejected that, but guess what? Jesus had also rejected that.
He had railed against that and called people to real life and
to real faith. Jesus was and is the enemy of dead religion.
Jesus came to deliver us from that. He railed against the
religious leaders of his day because he knew that it was all
just a front, that in their hearts they were far from God his
Father. When he was tempted in the desert, who was the one
throwing Bible verses at him? Satan. That is a perfect
picture of dead religion. Using the words of God to do the
opposite of what God does. It is grotesque when you think
about it. It is demonic.
That summer as I came to faith, the guy who shared his
faith with me, Ed Tuttle, gave me a copy of ``The Cost of
Discipleship'' by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And he asked me if I
had ever heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I said, ``no.'' He
said, ``Bonhoeffer was a pastor who because of his faith in
Jesus stood up for the Jews of Europe.'' I was shocked. My
mother is German. She grew up during this period. Why had I
never heard this amazing story about Bonhoeffer before? I
remember thinking somebody really ought to write a book about
Bonhoeffer.
I was not interested in writing biographies. I am far too
self-centered to spend that much time focusing on someone
besides myself. I went on to have a strange career writing
children's books, I wrote humor for the New York Times, I
worked for Veggie Tales. And then I wanted to share my faith
and I wrote a book with the ridiculous title ``Everything You
Always Wanted to Know about God but Were Afraid to Ask''.
Actually now it's a trilogy, three books. And one day I found
myself being interviewed on CNN about this book and I was
expecting one of those tough questions like, how can a good
God allow evil and suffering? But instead, I got a softball
question. The host on CNN said to me, ``you know there is
something here about Wilberforce''--and I had two sentences
in the book about Wilberforce--``Can you talk about that?''
Suddenly I am on CNN being asked to talk about Wilberforce.
All I knew about Wilberforce was in the book--that he was
someone who took the Bible so seriously that he changed the
world forever.
So I start talking about him briefly and next thing I know
a publisher calls me up and says ``there's a movie coming out
called `Amazing Grace'.'' And I was asked to write a book
about Wilberforce. Amazingly, I wrote a biography about
Wilberforce and everywhere I go talking about Wilberforce
people would say to me, ``who are you going to write about
next? Who are you going to write about next?'' Some people
asked me about ``whom will you next write?'' As a Yale
English major, I want to recommend the word whom. If English
is your first language, you may want to use the word whom.
You can get it free as an app on your iPhone, you just
download it. You use it as much as you want. ``Eric, about
whom will you next write?'' And I thought well, there is only
one person besides Wilberforce, only one about whom I would
write if I were to write a second biography. I remembered
Bonhoeffer and I did write that book. And I have to tell you,
nobody is more shocked by the reception of the book than I.
No one is more grateful to the Lord for the people who are
reading and talking about this book. I know that it was read
even by President George W. Bush who is intellectually
incurious as we have all read. He read the book. No pressure.
[Hands President Obama a book.] I just want to say no
pressure. I know you are very busy, Mr. President, but I know
sometimes you take plane rides and you have got time to kill,
so here. [Hands President Obama another book.] No pressure.
No pressure at all. Who am I to pressure you?
Nonetheless, the lives of both of these men illustrate the
difference between phony religiosity and really believing in
God in a way that is real--that changes your life, that must
change your life, and the lives of others. Wilberforce is
best known for leading the movement to end the slave trade.
Now, why did he take that on? Do you know why? I am here to
tell you it is not because he was just a churchgoer, because
there were plenty of churchgoers in England in the day of
Wilberforce. And everybody in that day seemed to have no
problem with the slave trade or slavery, people who went to
church. The reason Wilberforce fought so hard was because
around his 26th birthday, he encountered Jesus. England paid
lip service to religion in those days. Everybody said ``I am
a Christian, I am English, yeah, we are Christians.'' But
they really seemed to think--most of them--that the slave
trade was a fine thing. So keep in mind that when someone
says, ``I am a Christian'', it might mean absolutely nothing.
But for Wilberforce it became real. It was not about
Christianity, it was about the living God and serving Him.
And Wilberforce suddenly took the Bible seriously--that all
of us are created in the image of God. He took this idea
seriously--that it was our duty to care for the least of
these. And he said, ``Lord, I will obey.''
Now he fought politically, he fought hard and you know the
only people really fighting with him at this point were the
fanatical Christians. Did you know that? All the churchgoers,
all the religious people, they were not alongside him. Who
was alongside him in those days? The born again nuts, the
Quakers, the Methodists that people made fun of. They were in
the trenches because they knew they had no choice but to
regard the Africans as made in the image of God and worthy of
our love and respect. Everyone else was just going with the
flow, all the people who just went to church. As I say, they
got it wrong. They had not seen Jesus.
Wilberforce took these ideas, these foreign ideas, from the
Bible and brought them into culture. You can read about it,
and not just in my book, which the President may read. But
you can read about it. This is historical fact. This is not
my spin, this is true. Wilberforce, because he believed what
the Bible said and because he obeyed what God told him to do,
changed the world.
Today we argue about how to help the poor. Some say, ``Oh,
the public sector, government, is the answer.'' Others say,
``The
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private sector, free enterprise.'' But today, we argue about
how to help the poor, not whether to help the poor. Praise
the Lord. The idea to care for the poor, the idea that
slavery is wrong; these ideas are not normal human ideas.
These are Biblical ideas imported by Wilberforce at a crucial
time.
Human beings do not do the right thing apart from God's
intervention. We always do the phony religious thing. We go
with the flow. In Wilberforce's day going with the flow meant
supporting slavery, that Africans are not fully human. In
Bonhoeffer's world, in Nazi Germany, it meant supporting the
idea that Jews are not fully human. So whom do we say is not
fully human today? Who is expendable to us? My mother lived
through this. There are people in this room who lived through
this. I was in Germany last week; I met people who lived
through this period. It was an extraordinary thing to be
there, to meet people who were the sons of heroes fighting
against Hitler. This was a moment ago that this horror
happened.
Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 and he was born into an amazing
family. His father was the most famous psychiatrist in
Germany. This was a big, important amazing family. At 14, he
announces he wants to be a theologian. He got his doctorate
at age 21. Bonheoffer was a great theologian but he decided
in the midst of being a great theologian that he wanted to
get ordained as a Lutheran pastor. And then one day at age
24, he went to America to spend a year in New York City. And
he went to study at Union Theological Seminary. One Sunday a
fellow student named Frank Fisher, an African American from
Alabama, invited Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Harlem to a church
called Abyssinian Baptist Church. He said, ``why don't you
come with me?'' And Bonheoffer went with him and for the
first time in his life, in that church, he saw something that
was clearly not mere phony religion. He saw people worshiping
a living God. He saw people who understood suffering and
whose worship was real. Bonhoeffer said that in New York, in
America, he did not hear the gospel proclaimed. Think about
this, he visited many, many churches, yet he did not hear the
gospel proclaimed except, in his words, in the Negro
churches. That was the only place he saw the true gospel. He
saw true faith, living faith, people living it, preaching the
gospel of Jesus, living the gospel of Jesus. He saw this
among the suffering in Harlem and it changed his life.
When he got back to Germany, people could see that he was
different. He was not intellectually different, but his heart
had been changed. He began to speak publicly about the Bible
as the word of God, the living word of God through which God
who is alive wishes to speak to us. So, he understood from
the black church in Harlem the idea of a personal faith, that
God is alive and wishes to speak to you. And it had a
political component because it is now 1932, the Nazis are
rising. Bonhoeffer begins to say things that you would not
hear in Germany, even in the churches in those days. He spoke
of Jesus as the man for others. He said ``whoever does not
stand up for the Jews has no right to sing Gregorian chants,
God is not fooled.'' His whole life was about this idea that
you have to have a living relationship with God and that it
must lead you to action--that you must obey God, that you
will look different.
Now of course dead religion demonizes others, I just said
that, and apart from God's intervention, that is what we do.
So don't think that you won't do that. You will do that. We
are broken, fallen human beings so apart from God--that is
what we do. Do you think that you are better than the Germans
in that era? You are not. Not in God's eyes you're not. We
are the same. We are capable of the same horrible things.
Wilberforce somehow saw what the people in his day did not
see, and we celebrate him for it. Bonhoeffer saw what others
did not see, and we celebrate him for it. Now how did they
see what they saw? There is just one word that will answer
that, it is Jesus. He opens our eyes to his ideas which are
radical and which are different from our own. Personally, I
would say the same thing about the unborn. That apart from
God we cannot see that they are persons as well so those of
us who know the unborn to be human beings are commanded by
God to love those who do not yet see that.
We need to know that apart from God we would be on the
other side of that divide fighting for what we believe is
right. We cannot demonize our enemies. Today, if you believe
that abortion is wrong, you must treat those on the other
side with the love of Jesus. Today, if you have a Biblical
view of sexuality, you will be demonized by those on the
other side who will call you a bigot. Jesus commands us to
love those who call us bigots; to show them the love of
Jesus. If you want people to treat you with dignity, treat
them with dignity.
So finally, Jesus tells us that we must love our enemies.
That, my friends, is the real difference between dead
religion and a living faith in the God of the Scriptures,
whether we can love our enemies. Wilberforce had political
enemies but he knew that God had commanded him to treat them
with civility. He knew that he had been saved by grace. He
was not morally superior to the people on the other side of
the aisle. Martin Luther King told the people on the buses
that you must not fight back, that you must be willing to
turn the other cheek or get off the bus. Branch Rickey told
Jackie Robinson that if you want to win the battle, you need
to do as Jesus commanded and to be strong enough to not fight
back; that is how your enemies will know that there is
someone, capital ``S'', standing behind you, that it is not
just you.
So if you can see Jesus in your enemy, then you can know
that you are seeing with God's eyes and not your own. So, can
you love your enemy? If you cannot pray for those on the
other side, if you cannot actually feel the love of God for
your enemies, political and otherwise, my friends, that is a
sure sign that you are being merely religious. That you have
bought into a moral system but you do not know the God who
has forgiven you. Only God can give us that supernatural
agape love for those with whom we disagree. That is the test.
It is an impossible standard apart from the grace of God. We
all fail that test. But thank God for the grace of God. The
grace of God is real. God wants to shed it abroad in every
heart, not just on some, on every heart. It is the only thing
, the grace of a living God, that can bring left and right
together to do the right thing.
So can we humble ourselves enough to actually ask him in a
real prayer to show himself to us, to lead us to do what is
right? Can we do that for our country? For the world? This is
a Bonhoeffer moment. If we will humble ourselves, ask God,
cry out, Cri du coeur, cry from the heart, Lord lead us, will
you ask him to help you? The amazing grace of God is there
for everyone. You know Jesus is not just for so called
``Christians'', Jesus is for everyone. The grace of God is
for everyone. I hope you know that.
When I was 21 years old, I worked at the Boston Opera House
and Garrison Keeler showed up and he gave a talk. And at the
end of his talk he asked the audience if they wanted to sing.
They didn't, but he made them anyway. He led them in a song
called ``Amazing Grace'' and that a capella rendition has
stuck with me my whole life. I thought maybe some day I will
get some people to do that, not today of course. But then I
thought you know, if the President can sing Al Green, then
maybe you can sing with him. So we are going to try this, if
it goes well I will leave with my head up. You ready? If you
don't know the lyrics, pretend that you do. I want to hear
harmonies.
All singing: Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a
wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. Was blind
but now I see.
God Bless you.
Senator Sessions: Thank you Eric, you have indeed blessed
us. You got our attention and gave us spiritual food. Now it
is my great honor to introduce the President of the United
States. Mr. President, we thank you for your one hundred
percent support that you have given to this prayer breakfast;
being here every single year and when you were a member of
the Senate with us. Mr. President, I personally want to thank
you for the way you strive for the betterment of all
Americans. You give your life to that. It was Abraham Lincoln
who first used the phrase that we are a nation under God. If
we are going to be a nation under God, then we have to
recognize the precious worth of every single person. Thank
you for your leadership. Ladies and gentlemen, the President
of the United States, Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama: Well, good morning everybody. It is
good to be with so many friends united in prayer. And I begin
by giving all praise and honor to God for bringing us here
together today.
I want to thank our co-chairs, Mark and Jeff; to my dear
friend, the guy who always has my back, Vice President Biden.
All the members of Congress and my Cabinet who are here
today, all the distinguished guests who have traveled a long
way to be a part of this. I am not going to be as funny as
Eric but I am grateful that he shared his message with us.
Michelle and I feel truly blessed to be here.
This is my fourth year coming to this prayer breakfast as
President. As Jeff mentioned, before that I came as senator.
I have to say, it is easier coming as President. I don't have
to get here quite as early. But it has always been an
opportunity that I have cherished. And it is a chance to step
back for a moment, for us to come together as brothers and
sisters and seek God's face together. At a time when it is
easy to lose ourselves in the rush and clamor of our own
lives, or get caught up in the noise and rancor that too
often passes as politics today, these moments of prayer slow
us down. They humble us. They remind us that no matter how
much responsibility we have, how fancy our titles, how much
power we think we hold, we are imperfect vessels. We can all
benefit from turning to our Creator, listening to Him,
avoiding phony religiosity and listening to Him.
This is especially important right now, when we are facing
some big challenges as a nation. Our economy is making
progress as we recover from the worst crisis in three
generations, but far too many families are still struggling
to find work or make the mortgage, pay for college, or, in
some cases, even buy food. Our men and women in uniform have
made us safer and more secure, and we are eternally grateful
to them, but war and suffering and hardship still remain in
too many corners of the globe. And a lot of those men and
women who we celebrate on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day come
back and find that, when it comes to finding a job or getting
the kind of care that they need, we are not always there the
way that we need to be.
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It is absolutely true that meeting these challenges
requires sound decision-making, requires smart policies. We
know that part of living in a pluralistic society means that
our personal religious beliefs alone cannot dictate our
response to every challenge we face.
But in my moments of prayer, I am reminded that faith and
values play an enormous role in motivating us to solve some
of our most urgent problems, in keeping us going when we
suffer setbacks, and opening our minds and our hearts to the
needs of others.
We cannot leave our values at the door. If we leave our
values at the door, we abandon much of the moral glue that
has held our nation together for centuries, and allowed us to
become somewhat more perfect a union. Frederick Douglass,
Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Dorothy Day, Abraham Heschel--the majority of great reformers
in American history did their work not just because it was
sound policy, or they had done good analysis, or understood
how to exercise good politics, but because their faith and
their values dictated it, and called for bold action--
sometimes in the face of indifference, sometimes in the face
of resistance.
This is no different today for millions of Americans, and
it is certainly not for me.
I wake up each morning and I say a brief prayer, and I
spend a little time in Scripture and devotion. And from time
to time, friends of mine, some of who are here today, friends
like Joel Hunter or T.D. Jakes, will come by the Oval Office,
or they will call on the phone, or they will send me an
email, and we will pray together, and they will pray for me
and my family, and for our country.
But I don't stop there. I would be remiss if I stopped
there; if my values were limited to personal moments of
prayer or private conversations with pastors or friends. So,
instead, I must try--imperfectly, but I must try--to make
sure those values motivate me as one leader of this great
nation.
And so when I talk about our financial institutions playing
by the same rules as folks on Main Street, when I talk about
making sure insurance companies are not discriminating
against those who are already sick, or making sure that
unscrupulous lenders are not taking advantage of the most
vulnerable among us, I do so because I genuinely believe it
will make the economy stronger for everybody. But I also do
it because I know that far too many neighbors in our country
have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years,
and I believe in God's command to ``love thy neighbor as
thyself.'' I know that a version of that Golden Rule is found
in every major religion and every set of beliefs--from
Hinduism to Islam to Judaism to the writings of Plato.
And when I talk about shared responsibility, it is because
I genuinely believe that in a time when many folks are
struggling, at a time when we have enormous deficits, it is
hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income, or young people
with student loans, or middle-class families who can barely
pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone. And I think to
myself, if I am willing to give something up as someone who
has been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax
breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that is going to make
economic sense.
But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's
teaching that ``for unto whom much is given, much shall be
required.'' It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who have
been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to
help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and
consideration for others.
When I talk about giving every American a fair shot at
opportunity, it is because I believe that when a young person
can afford a college education or someone who has been
unemployed suddenly has a chance to retrain for a job and
regain that sense of dignity and pride, and contributing to
the community as well as supporting their families--that
helps us all prosper.
It means maybe that research lab on the cusp of a
lifesaving discovery, or the company looking for skilled
workers is going to do a little bit better, and we will all
do better as a consequence. It makes economic sense. But part
of that belief comes from my faith in the idea that I am my
brother's keeper and I am my sister's keeper; that as a
country, we rise and fall together. I am not an island. I am
not alone in my success. I succeed because others succeed
with me.
And when I decide to stand up for foreign aid, or prevent
atrocities in places like Uganda, or take on issues like
human trafficking, it is not just about strengthening
alliances, or promoting democratic values, or projecting
American leadership around the world, although it does all
those things and it will make us safer and more secure. It is
also about the Biblical call to care for the least of these--
for the poor, for those at the margins of our society.
To answer the responsibility we are given in Proverbs to
``speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the
rights of all who are destitute.'' And for others, it may
reflect the Jewish belief that the highest form of charity is
to do our part to help others to stand on their own.
Treating others as you want to be treated; requiring much
from those who have been given so much; living by the
principle that we are our brother's keeper; caring for the
poor and those in need. These values are old. They can be
found in many denominations and many faiths, among many
believers and among many non-believers. And they are values
that have always made this country great--when we live up to
them; when we don't just give lip service to them; when we
don't just talk about them one day a year. And they are the
ones that have defined my own faith journey.
And today, with as many challenges as we face, these are
the values I believe we are going to have to return to in the
hope that God will buttress our efforts.
Now, we can earnestly seek to see these values lived out in
our politics and our policies, and we can earnestly disagree
on the best way to achieve these values. In the words of C.S.
Lewis, ``Christianity has not, and does not profess to have a
detailed political program. It is meant for all men at all
times, and the particular program which suited one place or
time would not suit another.''
Our goal should not be to declare our policies as Biblical.
It is God who is infallible, not us. Michelle reminds me of
this often. So instead, it is our hope that people of
goodwill can pursue their values and common ground and the
common good as best they know how, with respect for each
other. And I have to say that sometimes we talk about
respect, but we don't act with respect towards each other
during the course of these debates.
But each and every day, for many in this room, the Biblical
injunctions are not just words, they are also deeds--every
single day, in different ways, so many of you are living out
your faith in service to others.
Just last month, it was inspiring to see thousands of young
Christians filling the Georgia Dome at the Passion
Conference, to worship the God who sets the captives free and
work to end modern slavery. Since we have expanded and
strengthened the White House faith-based initiative, we have
partnered with Catholic Charities to help Americans who were
struggling with poverty, worked with organizations like World
Vision and American Jewish World Service and Islamic Relief
to bring hope to those suffering around the world.
Colleges across the country have answered our Interfaith
Campus Challenge, and students are joined together across
religious lines in service to others. From promoting
responsible fatherhood to strengthening adoption, from
helping people find jobs to serving our veterans, we are
linking arms with faith-based groups all across the country.
I think we all understand that these values cannot truly
find voice in our politics and our policies unless they find
a place in our hearts. The Bible teaches us to ``be doers of
the word and not merely hearers.'' We are required to have a
living, breathing, active faith in our own lives. And each of
us is called on to give something of ourselves for the
betterment of others--and to live the truth of our faith not
just with words, but with deeds.
So even as we join the great debates of our age--how we
best put people back to work, how we ensure opportunity for
every child, the role of government in protecting this
extraordinary planet that God has made for us, how we lessen
the occasions of war--even as we debate these great issues,
we must be reminded of the difference that we can make each
day in our small interactions, in our personal lives.
As a loving husband, or a supportive parent, or a good
neighbor, or a helpful colleague--in each of these roles, we
help bring His kingdom to Earth. And as important as
government policy may be in shaping our world, we are
reminded that it is the cumulative acts of kindness and
courage and charity and love, It is the respect that we show
each other and the generosity that we share with each other
that in our every day lives will somehow sustain us during
these challenging times. John tells us that, ``If anyone has
material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no
pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear
children, let us not love with words or tongue but with
actions and in truth.''
Mark read a letter from Billy Graham, and it took me back
to one of the great honors of my life, which was visiting
Reverend Graham at his mountaintop retreat in North Carolina,
when I was on vacation with my family in a hotel not far
away.
And I can still remember winding up the path, up a mountain
to his home. Ninety-one years old at the time, facing various
health challenges, he welcomed me as he would welcome a
family member or a close friend. This man who had prayed
great prayers that inspired a nation, this man who seemed
larger than life, greeted me and was as kind and as gentle as
could be.
And we had a wonderful conversation. Before I left,
Reverend Graham started to pray for me, as he had prayed for
so many Presidents before me. And when he finished praying, I
felt the urge to pray for him. I didn't really know what to
say. What do you pray for when it comes to the man who has
prayed for so many? But like that verse in Romans, the Holy
Spirit interceded when I didn't know quite what to say.
And so I prayed--briefly, but I prayed from the heart. I
don't have the intellectual capacity or the lung capacity of
some of my great preacher friends here who have prayed for a
long time. But I prayed. And we ended with an embrace and a
warm good-bye.
And I thought about that moment all the way down the
mountain, and I have thought about it in the many days since.
Because I thought about my own spiritual journey--growing up
in a household that was not particularly religious; going
through my own
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period of doubt and confusion, finding Christ when I was not
even looking for him so many years ago; possessing so many
shortcomings that have been overcome by the simple grace of
God. And the fact that I would ever be on top of a mountain,
saying a prayer for Billy Graham--a man whose faith had
changed the world and that had sustained him through triumphs
and tragedies, and movements and milestones--that simple fact
humbled me to my core.
I have fallen on my knees with great regularity since that
moment--asking God for guidance not just in my personal life
and my Christian walk, but in the life of this nation and in
the values that hold us together and keep us strong. I know
that He will guide us. He always has and He always will. And
I pray his richest blessings on each of you in the days
ahead.
Thank you very much.
Senator Pryor: Thank you, Mr. President, for sharing your
heart and your faith with us. You have a room full of people
here who are praying for you and your family. God bless the
President of the United States of America.
Speaking of powerful people, let's hear one more time from
Jackie Evancho.
``The Lord's Prayer'' sung by Miss Jackie Evancho.
Senator Sessions: Thank you, Jackie, and may God's
blessings continue with you. My thanks to the President,
Eric, all our speakers up here this morning You have given us
a lot to think about. Now it is our job to ponder these
things in our hearts and to turn those good ideas into
action.
Senator Pryor: Being a part of this National Prayer
Breakfast is a great privilege and now it becomes a great
responsibility. I believe God is counting on you and me to
love and pray where we are. Let's complain a lot less and
let's pray and love a lot more so God can use us to make a
better world. And now to close us in prayer is Robert Griffin
III of Baylor University.
Mr. Robert Griffin, III: Before I close in prayer, I would
just like to say, ``Sic em, Bears.'' And to the President, if
you ever get a little tired of running the country or
anything like that, a little bored, I would love to play you
in basketball. It would be a friendly competition because I
wouldn't want anyone to feel like I was trying to hurt you or
anything, so I wouldn't dunk on you at all. This has been a
really long breakfast. The longest I have ever been a part
of. I guess everyone up here got the memo except for me
because both of my cups are empty because I drank them. No
one else drank anything and I really have to use the
bathroom. So will go ahead and close this out so we can all
go ahead and do that.
If you could bow your heads, please. Father God, we thank
you for this day as a day you have made and we rejoice and we
are glad in it. Today has truly been a great day, many great
speakers and a lovely singer who has blessed all of our
hearts and brought many to tears. Father God, in Jesus' name,
we thank you that we could sit up here and thank you for so
many different things and be here all day. But most of all,
we thank you above all for having the ability to make a
difference in everyone's lives and giving us the power to go
out and change the world. And we thank you for your love,
your grace and your mercy and as we leave today, we thank you
that we take those qualities that can show the world not only
with our words but with our actions. In Jesus' name we pray,
Amen.
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