I Keep Thinking About What Happened When the Cameras Stopped

I keep thinking about the prayers.

After the interviews ended, the camera lights were still standing in the room. Aides moved through the hallway outside. There were votes to take and political problems waiting for attention.

Then we prayed.

Those moments happened with more than one of the leaders I recently interviewed inside the Capitol. They felt different from the public conversation that had just taken place. Nobody was trying to land a line. For a few minutes, the titles in the room mattered less than our shared need for God.

With Speaker Mike Johnson, I watched that dependence show up before the conversation was over. His job can consume almost every hour he has, and a narrow House majority means one disagreement can change the day. He told me that prayer has become an ongoing posture as he walks through the building.

“We count on a Red Sea moment here almost every day,” he said.

That answer caught me. Johnson did not sound like a man reaching for a religious phrase. He sounded like someone describing the only way he knows to carry a responsibility that is bigger than him.

John Rose spoke from the middle of another demanding season. He is serving in Congress while campaigning for governor of Tennessee, and he has felt the strain that political ambition can place on relationships. One of his regular prayers is for the grace to respond well when people attack him.

Ralph Norman kept bringing our conversation back to Scripture. At one point, he recalled asking about the central message of the Museum of the Bible. The answer he received was almost comically simple: “Read the Bible.”

I left Washington with a question that felt larger than any single interview.

What has already been formed in a leader before Washington turns up the pressure?