Siapa yang tidak mengenal Rick Warren, penulis buku “The Purpose Driven Life” yang bukunya menjadi the best seller di beberapa negara serta telah diterjemahkan ke beberapa bahasa termasuk ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia.
Bukunya juga termasuk the best seller di Gramedia karena dalam bukunya menyinggung mengenai tujuan hidup manusia selama di dunia. Pertanyaan yang sangat essential dan sering ditanyakan kepada kita mengenai untuk apa kita hidup di dunia?
Rick Warren banyak disebut sebagai “Billy Graham” kecil karena perjuangan moralitas dan semangat evengelismenya bagi Dunia khususnya bagi Amerika Serikat. Disebut “Billy Graham” kecil karena Billy Graham terkenal sebagai tokoh agama di Amerika Serikat yang memperjuangkan moralitas serta semangat penginjilan yang begitu kuat bagi Kristus.
Pada waktu saya menonton Inagurasi Obama sebagai Presiden Amerika Serikat. Saya sangat terkejut sekali ketika Rick Warren di daulat untuk membawa doa pembukaan. Padahal setahu saya Golongan Protestant & Katolik di Amerika Serikat lebih pro pada Partai Republik (sayangnya mereka ‘terpaksa’ lebih condong ke partai Republik meskipun agak tercoreng karena kebijakan Bush yang tidak populer) karena kesepahaman mengenai masalah religious dan moralitas ketimbang Partai Demokrat yang lebih liberal dan ‘agak kebablasan’. Obama sendiri dari Partai Demokrat sedangkan Rick Warren merupakan salah satu golongan yang saya sebut di atas.
Paling tidak ini menandakan bahwa di dalam masyarakat Amerika Serikat yang meskipun digempur paham liberal (yang akhir-akhir ini agak liberalnya kebabalasan mengarah kepada degradasi moral serta usaha meniadakan nilai-nilai religious), masih ada sekelompok politikus yang menghargai betapa pentingnya nilai-nilai religious yang sudah exist sejak berdirinya negara Amerika Serikat. Serta menandakan masih kuatnya rasa persatuan di dalam Masyarakat Amerika Serikat sendiri meskipun berbeda-beda.
Di dalam doa, nama Yesus disebut dalam berbagai bahasa dan ditutup dengan Doa Bapa Kami.
Semoga moralitas Amerika Serikat masih tetap terjaga.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you. It all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory.
History is your story. The Scripture tells us, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now, today, we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven. Give to our new President, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race, or religion, or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us. And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all. May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a healthier and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you. We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus, who taught us to pray:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Sources : Christianity Today