Prayer is as close to a unifying core value as you can find here in Lexington, SC—and that helps explain why living here is so attractive.
To be sure, different parts of our community have core value statements that try to capture each one’s essential purpose. For Lexington Town Hall it’s “Building Partnerships.” Lexington One School District sets its direction with “Where Children and Learning Are One.” The Chamber of Commerce looks to “Promote Business Prosperity.” Lexington County opts for the well known, “In God We Trust.”
Lexington believes in the power of prayer
When you survey our community’s landscape as a whole, though, one value stands out more than any other. Maybe it doesn’t fit into a snappy slogan. And it hasn’t been embraced officially by any government agency or written across some business’s logo (heaven forbid). But the longer I live here the more evident it is. Lexington believes in the power of prayer.
You can see prayer encouraged on church signs. You can hear business leaders praying at official functions. Political figures aren’t bashful about asking constituents to remember them in prayer. School administrators, teachers and coaches make no secret of their commitment to praying for their students. You can even witness people giving thanks at restaurants before eating. And I can give first hand testimony to how often we preachers preach about it.
We’re a diverse community and not everyone shares the same religious convictions. Some folks here have no religion at all and would scoff at the notion of Lexington as united by prayer. There are even a few who might take legal action against anyone offering prayer in public spaces or functions.
Still, prayer continues. And that’s a good thing, a very good thing in my estimation because where people pray it’s not just themselves, their families or their churches that stand to benefit. Prayer carries with it substantial collateral blessing as well, a ripple effect that washes up against distant shores in ways and directions we can’t always predict—but can see after the fact. Here’s a previous blog on how you can improve your own prayer life.
People who pray together can’t hate each another
Prayer moves God to act. It releases blessing. It mends what’s broken. It redeems what’s lost. People who pray together can’t hate each another. Businesses who ask God’s direction take a different direction than those that don’t. Local government leadership that seeks divine help over the raw exercise of power takes on a higher level of credibility and effectiveness. Law enforcement agencies become less confrontational and more devoted to building healthy relations.
No one would say we’re a perfect community and everyone would agree we have lots of room for improvement. But when the visible evidence of blessing is so obvious it’s not hard to track it back to its source. People here believe in prayer.
(Thanks to lexsc.com for the image at top)