[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 12526-12527] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]59TH NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST--PART IV ______ HON. MIKE McINTYRE of north carolina in the house of representatives Friday, July 29, 2011 Mr. McINTYRE. We've seen a lot of hardship these past two years. Not a day passes when I don't get a letter from somebody or meet someone who is out of work, or has lost their home or are without health care. The story Randall told about his father--that's a story that a whole lot of Americans have gone through over these past couple of years. Sometimes I can't help right away. Sometimes what I can do to try to improve the economy or to curb foreclosures or to help deal with the health care system--sometimes it seems so distant and so remote, so profoundly inadequate to the enormity of the need. And it is my faith, then, that Biblical injunction to serve the least of these, that keeps me going and that keeps me from being overwhelmed. It's faith that reminds me that despite being just one very imperfect man, I can still help whoever I can, however I can, wherever I can, for as long as I can, and that somehow God will buttress these efforts. It also helps to know that none of us are alone in answering this call. It's being taken up each and every day by so many of you--back home, your churches, your temples and synagogues, your fellow congregants--so many faith groups across this great country of ours. I came upon a group recently called charity: water, a group that supports clean water projects overseas. This is a project that was started by a former night club promoter named Scott Harrison who grew weary of living only for himself and feeling like he wasn't following Christ as well as he should. And because of Scott's good work, charity: water has helped 1.7 million people get access to clean water. And in the next 10 years, he plans to make clean water accessible to a hundred million more. That's the kind of promoting we need more of, and that's the kind of faith that moves mountains. And there are stories like that scattered across this room, of people who have taken it upon themselves to make a difference. Now, sometimes faith groups can do the work of caring for the least of these on their own; sometimes they need a partner, whether it's in business or government. And that's why my administration has taken a fresh look at the way we organize with faith groups, the way we work with faith groups through our Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. And through that office, we're expanding the way faith groups can partner with our government. We're helping them feed more kids who otherwise would go hungry. We're helping fatherhood groups get dads the support they need to be there for their children. We're working with non-profits to improve the lives of people around the world. And we're doing it in ways that are aligned with our constitutional principles. And in this work, we intend to expand it in the days ahead, rooted in the notions of partnership and justice and the imperatives to help the poor. Of course, there are some needs that require more resources than faith groups have at their disposal. There's only so much a church can do to help all the families in need--all those who need help making a mortgage payment, or avoiding foreclosure, or making sure their child can go to college. There is only so much that a non-profit can do to help a community rebuild in the wake of disaster. There is only so much the private sector will do to help folks who are desperately sick get the care that they need. And that's why I continue to believe that in a caring and in a just society, government must have a role to play; that our values, our love and our charity must find expression, not just in our families, not just in our places of work and our places of worship, but also in our government and in our politics. Over the past two years, the nature of these obligations, the proper role of government has obviously been the subject of enormous controversy. And the debates have been fierce as one side's version of compassion and community may be interpreted by the other side as an oppressive and irresponsible expansion of the state or an unacceptable restriction on individual freedom. That's why a second recurring theme in my prayers is a prayer for humility. God answered this prayer for me early on by having me marry Michelle. Because whether it's reminding me of a chore undone, or questioning the wisdom of watching my third football game in a row on Sunday, she keeps me humble. But in this life of politics when debates have become so bitterly polarized, and changes in the media lead so many of us to listen and reinforce our existing biases, it's useful to go back to Scripture to remind ourselves that none of us has all the answers--none of us, no matter what our political party or our station in life. The full breadth of human knowledge is like a grain of sand in God's hands. There are some mysteries in this world we cannot fully comprehend. As it is written in Job, ``God's voice thunders in marvelous ways. He does great things beyond our understandings.'' The challenge I find then is to balance this uncertainty, this humility with the need to fight for deeply held convictions, to be open to other points of view but firm in our core principles. And I pray for this wisdom every day. I pray that God will show me and all of us the limits of our understanding, and open our ears and our hearts to our brothers and sisters with different points of view; that such reminders of our shared hopes and our shared dreams and our shared limitations as children of God will reveal a way forward that we can travel together. And the last recurrent theme, one that binds all prayers together, is that I might walk closer with God and make that walk my first and most important task. In our own lives it's easy to be consumed by our daily worries and our daily concerns. And it is even easier at a time when everybody is busy, everybody is stressed and everybody--our culture--is obsessed with wealth and power and celebrity. And often it takes a brush with hardship or tragedy to shake us out of that, to remind us of what matters most. We see an aging parent wither under a long illness, or we lose a daughter or a husband in Afghanistan, we watch a gunman open fire at a supermarket--and we remember how fleeting life can be. And we ask ourselves how we have treated others, whether we've told our family and friends how much we love them. And it's in these moments, when we feel most intensely our mortality and our own flaws and the sins of the world, that we most desperately seek to touch the face of God. So my prayer this morning is that we might seek His face not only in those moments, but each and every day; and every day as we go through the hustle and bustle of our lives, whether it's in Washington or Hollywood or anywhere in between, that we might every so often rise above the here and now and kneel before the Eternal; that we might remember, Kaye, the fact that those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not be wary and they will walk and not faint. When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, and I ask Him to give me the strength to do right by our country and its people. And when I go to bed at night I wait on the Lord and ask him to forgive me my sins, and look after my family and the American people, and make me an instrument of His will. I say these prayers hoping they will be answered, and I say these prayers knowing that I must work and must sacrifice and must serve to see them answered. But I also say these prayers knowing that the act of prayer itself is a source of strength. It is a reminder that our time on Earth is not just about us; that when we open ourselves to the possibility that God might have a larger purpose for our lives, there is a chance that somehow, in ways that we may never fully know, God will use us well. May the Lord bless you and keep you, and may He bless this country that we love. [Song by Alison Krauss] Congresswoman Kirkpatrick: Thank you so much, Alison. It has been quite a morning. Congressman Miller: We are grateful to all of our head table guests and our distinguished visitors around the world. We all hope you have something powerful to think about and apply to your leadership challenges wherever you may live. Congresswoman Kirkpatrick: Prayer is a powerful thing because we all are connected to a powerful loving God. We are all brought to this place and this moment for a reason and it is our responsibility to figure out what we can do to spread the message of hope and faith we received today. One of the things we perhaps all have noticed is that in the world that God has made almost always where there is tragedy, there is also a release of great love. People across the country and around the world have been focused on the terrible senseless shooting 26 days ago in Tucson. It has made us all ask, why, and examine what we can do to make the world where such things don't happen. Congressman Miller: Most of us have said our prayers for the life and the recovery of all of the victims and especially our colleague Gabby Giffords. This morning we get to pray with her husband Captain Mark Kelly. Captain, we thank you for your own service to our country. As a member of the United States Navy and as an astronaut, we [[Page 12527]] thank you for being here to lead us in our closing prayer. Captain Mark Kelly: Congresswoman Kirkpatrick, Congressman Miller, thank you for inviting me here today. I am not so sure I can thank you for having me follow Jose Enriquez, Randall Wallace and the President of the United States, though. What allowed me to be here today, I think, is Gabby's condition. It continues to improve. Every day she gets a little bit better and the neurosurgeons and neurologists tell me that that is a great sign. The slope of that curve is very important. It is good to be here at an event that has become such an important part of our national dialogue. As you can imagine, the last month has been the hardest time of my life and the hardest time of my family's life. It was on January 8th, just four weeks ago on Saturday, that Gabby's life and my life have forever been changed. And we are not the only ones; the shooting has cost other families dearly. Gabby's community in Tucson, my community in Tucson, the people of Tucson are suffering. Suffering deeply, but suffering together. When something like this happens it's natural to think, how? Why could this happen? Why were six people killed? Why was a nine year old girl, an innocent child, killed who just wanted to meet her Congresswoman? Why was Gabby shot through her head and left barely clinging to life? We can't ever know the answers to these questions. We won't. But, thankfully, miraculously, Gabby survives. I was telling Gabby just the other night, two nights ago that maybe this event, this terrible event, was fate. I hadn't been a big believer in fate until recently. I thought the world just spins and the clock just ticks and things happen for no particular reason. President Lincoln was a big believer in fate. He said ``the Almighty has His own purposes.'' He believed that there was a larger plan. I can only hope and I told Gabby the other night that maybe it is possible that this is just one small part of that same plan. That this event, horrible and tragic, was not merely random, that maybe something good can come from all this. Maybe, it's our responsibility. Maybe it's your responsibility to see that something does. As many of you know, I'm an astronaut. I've been fortunate on three separate occasions in my life to look down at this planet from space. We orbit the earth at about nearly the same distance that Washington is from my home in West Orange, New Jersey--but from space far above that traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike, you have an entirely different perspective of life on our planet. It's humbling to see the earth as God created it in the context of God's vast universe. Many of you may also know that my twin brother Scott is also an astronaut. And through this very difficult time, he has been aboard the International Space Station. It's a really tough place to be when your twin brother and your family, and the nation, is going through something that is so difficult. He was asked by several journalists what it's been like to be so far away and unable to return to his family during this time, and I think what he said bears repeating. Scott said, ``What we do here in space is incredibly challenging. Our country faces a lot of challenges and the way we address those challenges is through teamwork. And I'd like to see more teamwork with more people not only in government but everyone in meeting the challenges our country faces. Hopefully if anything good can come from this, it's that we learn to work better together.'' Scott concluded by saying, ``We are better than this. We must do better.'' My brother is right, I know we will do better, and I know that prayer must be part of that effort. One morning when Gabby was still in Tucson at the Tucson University Medical Center, I was outside visiting that memorial that just sprung up on the grass in front of the hospital. It isn't a formal religious site but there is a lot of religious material that people left there on the lawn-- Bibles, angels, prayers. And the people of Arizona have turned that place into a place of prayer, a pilgrimage site. On that particular morning there was no wind, there were candles burning on the lawn, hundreds of them, and it was like stepping into a church, a place with heaven itself as a ceiling. That reminded me that you don't need a church, a temple or a mosque to pray. You don't even need a building or walls or even an altar. You pray where you are. You pray when God is there in your heart and prayer isn't just asking, it's also listening for answers and expressing gratitude, which I've done a lot lately. With that, I'd like to conclude with a prayer that my wife's Rabbi, Rabbi Stephanie Aaron who married us, said over Gabby's hospital bed on the first night when this happened on January 8. Rabbi Aaron said, and this is my prayer: ``In the name of God, our God of Israel, may Michael, God's angel, messenger of compassion, watch over your right side. May Gabriel, God's angel, messenger of strength and courage, be on your left. And before you, guiding your path, Uriel, God's angel of light, and behind you, supporting you, stands Raphael, God's angel of healing. And over your head surrounding you is the presence of the Divine.'' Thank you. God bless you and please, please, please continue to keep Gabby's thoughts and prayers in your heart, it is really helping. Thank you. Congressman Miller: I would ask that you all remain in your places to allow the President and the First Lady to depart. Thank you so much for coming Mr. President and thank you for bringing Mrs. Obama with you today. Congresswoman Kirkpatrick: Jeff, it's been quite a morning, and thank you again for being co-chair with me on this. Thank you and God bless you and now go and make peace. ____________________