Thursday, April 18, 2013

Pentecostal Prayer Day 16

A very dear friend from the time I was fourteen told me that many people go home when they're tired of being nice. What good is home and family if not to comfort one another? The world may not be fair, but I expect at least an honest effort at fairness from those who call themselves my family and friends. I would rather live in a box under a bridge than to have my spirit eaten alive by those who say they love me.

Our culture of comfort leads us to blame, and even attack, anyone who makes us uncomfortable with their truths. Animals move in packs, but humans are supposed to have the ability to choose individual behaviors. Were we lied to by the writers of Genesis? Are humans actually endowed with the image and likeness of The Sacred Spirit, or are we simply animals who act on ancestral impulses?

Just as some say charity begins at home, so I say, does responsible compassion. Charity without shared responsibility is simply enabling behavior. Action without personal responsibility is unfettered capitalism. Responsibility without compassion is religion. Responsible compassion forms families of faith.

My prayer for Pentecost is that we form families of faith in place of rites of religion.