Nancy and I sit on the sofa after hard work and short nights. We both say, “Time to start moving.” And then, eventually, we say, “Am I moving yet?”

And then, eventually, we get up and do the work that we know we need to do, or take the walk we need to take, or get the coffee we need to drink.

Though our words are helpful in our process of acting, our words are not the action.

At one point in a letter he wrote, James is trying to help his readers understand the importance of saying and doing, of believing and acting. He says, “If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,’ but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.” James 2:15-17 CSB

In a letter he wrote to Christians, James says, “if you know of people who just lost their house and you say, ‘stay warm’ and don’t offer a bed or a hotel voucher, what good is it?” If we say ‘I’ll pray that you find food’ while we go out to eat, what good is it?

In moments of crisis, many people say, “would you pray for me?” In other people’s moments of crisis, however, Christians are most likely to say, “We’ll be praying for you.”

I’m understanding more and more the people who say, “thoughts and prayers don’t help very much.”

When people are experiencing the physical consequences of hate, and people who identify themselves with Jesus say, “I’ll pray for you” and don’t spend time thinking about how they may have contributed to the hated, James says that our faith is dead. When people are shamed out of churches by gossip and people who identify themselves with Jesus say, “I’ll pray for you” and don’t stop the gossip and pursue truth, James says that our faith is dead. When people who are living in other countries are dying because they identify themselves with Jesus say, “that’s too bad. Let’s pray for them” and don’t spend time looking for ways to help, James says that our faith is dead.

We need to pray. We need to ask for strength for those working and comfort for those grieving. We need to ask for courage for those fearing and peace for little ones in shelter.

But as powerful as God is, we need to do more than pray. We need to act. In the ways we can.