Dear ones, I’m not sure where everyone falls on the debate regarding the “flood” of children crossing our southern borders, but I have a few reflections. It seems to me we have the resources (and I’m not talking about government resources) to offer our hands of love to 50,000 children. We should do so. However, the whole thing has become, yet again, a socio-political quagmire of debate, debasement, and deceit. Caught in the crossfire: the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the ones considered the wretched refuse of another country’s teeming shore, the homeless, and the tempest-tossed.

These are God’s children. And God knows these children do not have the privileges of ours. We the people can do this. We can love them. We can help them. We just need the socio-political bureaucracies to get out of the way. Of course, this would be an undetaking of far greater motivation, creativity, momentum, and sustainability than the actual care of these precious children. I do not pretend that I have an idea for how to produce that kind of change. I don’t. I feel another letter to an elected official is pointless…another letter to the editor the same. The halls and walls of bureaucracy have become entities unto themselves. We the people need another approach.

So, I’ve committed to several things:

1. I will pray fervently. I will pray for the walls and halls of bureaucracies to fall. I will ask God to remove them.

2. I will look fervently. Is there a way that I can, at least, get past those walls and halls? Is there someone in Texas who can help me help one, or two, or three, or more of these brave yet frightened children? I will look and I will call.

3. I will pray again. I will pray for the children. I will pray for their parents. I will pray for the less than kind adults who may be transporting, accompanying, or receiving the children.

4. I will pray for myself. “Oh God, break my heart and keep it broken.”

5. I will pray for the Church. I will pray that true followers of the Savior will fill the breach. I will pray that we stand up.

Yes, I want to help ours. I know there are great needs in our communities. And we are working to meet those needs. However, this should not stop us from helping all the rest. So, I ask you to consider. Will you join me in praying for the walls and halls of bureaucracies to fall?