Obama's Stolen Prayer Refreshingly Familiar

I, like most people, was outraged when I first saw this Associated Press story about Sen. Barack Obama's prayer being stolen from Jerusalem's Western Prayer Wall where he placed it during a visit last week. Following tradition, Obama wrote his prayer on a small piece of paper, fold it up and jam it into one of the cracks in the stone of the sacred wall. Before Obama could even make it back to his motorcade, a scavenger who obviously has no conscience plucked the presidential candidate's note to the Almighty from its resting place and took it to a newspaper.

Stealing someone's personal message to God is wrong on every imaginable level. I mean it's downright ignorant and disrespectful to the 2,000-year-old wall, considered Judaism's holiest place. With that said, I have to admit I couldn't wait to get to the part in the video where it revealed what he had written.

Sure, I felt conflicted about my nosiness. On the one hand, I thought it was ridiculously wrong for the news media to publish the information. The other part of me - the side that is as fascinated by the man as everyone else - wanted desperately to know what Barack Obama prays for.

From the outside looking in, it appears he has everything. He's reached rock star status in an historic election that has riveted a nation. He is a bestselling author with what appears to be an extremely loving relationship with a smart and successful wife. Let's not forget the two adorable children, who are equally charming and well-adjusted despite all of the madness that now surrounds them.

What would he say? I had to know. I'm not sure what I was expecting Obama's prayer to say. Perhaps: "Please God let me be president." Or "Thank you God for making me so freakin' AWESOME!" Or maybe even: "Please God keep me away from Rev. Jesse Jackson when he is holding a pair of scissors."

In the end, Barack's prayer was really not so different from mine or, I suspect, many people across this country and the world.

"Lord - Protect my family and me," reads the note, as reported by the Maariv daily. "Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."

We all want our families and ourselves to be safe. Most of us want our mistakes, missteps and just plain blasphemous behavior eradicated from all public, private, cosmic and spiritual records. Most of us want to do what's right -most, if not all of the time.

And the older I get the more I realize that doing things according to my will is not always so good for me or anyone around me. I'm sure others feel the same way –even if our current president doesn’t.