Confession

Confession Misuse Gifts shot, originally uploaded by _Justice.

This prayer is from the second Sunday of Lent. Its beauty and simplicity caused me to stop and consider all the power God has given me to do good, yet I sit on it.

This prayer hits the nail on the head: Many American Christians are not flagrantly pursuing evil; we simply squander what's good on ourselves and neglect those in sorrow and need. We may not be perverts, but we are spoiled. We really do need God to spare us, or we're toast.

President Herbert Hoover said, "There is no such thing as a no-man's land between honesty and dishonesty. Our greatest danger is not from invasion by foreign armies. Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within by complaisance with evil, or by public tolerance of scandalous behavior."

The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. I think that we don't really know how messed up we are until He puts His finger on the spot and presses. The American dream - a spouse, two kids, two cars, a steady job and a dog and a house with a picket fence - is too small and self-centered to help the world. It does not include the poor, the needy, and the lost.