I prayed today that President Trump would announce that the United States would remain a party to the Paris Agreement:

Lord, please open Donald Trump's mind and heart so he can hear the crying of the planet as it continues to suffer from human greed. Amen.

Sadly, I was disappointed. President Trump decided that we would pull out of the agreement; the United States of America would abdicate its moral responsibility and leadership in caring for our sister Mother Earth.

My prayers, it seemed, went unanswered. What good was it? I know Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given you ," (Matthew 7:7). Well, I asked and I didn't get an answer--I got a rejection. I knocked, and the door was slammed in my face. Humanity--led by the U.S.A.--will continue to trash this precious gift of God's Creation, exploiting it simply to satisfy our greed. I'm feeling rather doomed right about now.

But in this doom there is still a glimmer of hope; in the darkness of my disappointment, a see a faint light of understanding: my prayer wasn't a prayer at all. It was an attempt to control another's person actions. I was using God as a means to force another person to do something I wanted.

Prayer is supposed to change ourselves, not others. Prayer is only effective when we focus on our own personal conversion to become people of peace, joy, compassion, and love.

And the planet desperately needs such people.