Maybe it is time that we all take a knee.  Better yet, maybe it is time for us to use two knees, kneel and bow our heads. Maybe that is the only solution.

Considering recent massacres, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, terrorists and errant leaders in governments, perhaps we should all just collectively pray. Should this all happen at once so that God can hear a roar instead of a quiet prayer?  Should we have a day declared as “National Kneel Day?”

We all know evil exists. The only way that I know to combat it is with the armor of God himself. I often imagine God watching us running in maddening circles with our anger, our hate and our constant bickering over the small stuff. Meanwhile, he sits at his table having a cup of coffee just shaking his head.

He has given us an instruction book. For many of us, it’s a lot like that new car manual; is it necessary to read it all?

When the car starts acting up and decides it’s not leaving the garage, we realize maybe we should have looked at the manual.  In the end, we wind up having to take it to a master mechanic who asks us, “Didn’t you read the instructions? It tells you how to avoid this problem.”

When the world starts to crumble and seems unfixable in so many areas, perhaps it is God trying to tell us to come to him, the master mechanic.

I listen to the news every day. I hear the president, members of congress, average citizens and the media say, “Our prayers are with you and your families.” So, I take that to mean that most believe in a higher power.

National Kneel Day, if there were such a day, would mean that God hears a roar of unified prayer asking for guidance, help, hope and energy to keep fighting against the evils that seem to be attacking us.

The headlines in the national news this morning were about the secretary of state calling the president a moron; O.J. was free and in Nevada; Puerto Rico is in complete crisis; no motive yet behind the Las Vegas massacre;  tropical storm Nate turning into a hurricane; gun control legislation and finally, “Is World War III about to commence?”

If I were God, I think I might be having a cup of coffee as well, with tears dropping in my cup.  Yes, we are overwhelmed with ourselves. Yes, we need help. Yes, we need to pray.

We need not only God, but we need to join each other to fight the real evils in our society and put an end to the pettiness that can and will consume us.

We are so scared that someone will forget our individual needs and wants that we pay no attention to the greater need of all people.  We are so afraid that our individual beliefs and political views will be lost and not heard, that we don’t listen to the needs of those that are truly lost.

Perhaps the answer to our problems that are not caused by mother nature, is simply the “Golden Rule.”  I believe it is in the manual on how to follow it.

On National Kneel Day perhaps we should ask God for the basics:

Forgiveness, wisdom, healing, love, charity, unity and massive doses of human kindness for every heart and every soul.

For most of us, we experience times in our life when it seems we just can’t go any lower.  At those times, we feel we have hit rock bottom and can’t get up.  I have been there. The only thing that got me up was asking God to give me a hand. Our nation needs that hand today.

Is it time for our freedom of speech to be momentarily quieted to collective reverence? Is it time to stop inflaming hatred?

At some point, those of us who are kind by nature, love God, love people and care about those who have so bravely defended and died for our country need the courage to fall to both knees.

We need to look at our world not as a liberal or a conservative, or what ethnicity we are or how young or old we may be, but as God does.

Why not ask God to show us how to do just that? That is how you stop evil.  That is the only way according to my manual.

2 Chronicles 7:14

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Lynn Walker Gendusa is a former resident and writer who currently resides in Roswell. She can be reached at lwgendusa@bellsouth.net