July 20 | Your Brother’s Keeper

“Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The words of Cain after murdering his brother Able, spoken as blood seeps into the newly changed earth, perhaps the first seeds ever sown?

You could read it as archetypal: the twins, the firstborn of the earth, something that resides within each of us, watching that which is evil within us take advantage of that which is good. 

You could take it figuratively: a story from a book that tries to, from the start, answer the questions “how did everything come to be and why has it gone wrong?” as the first order of business. 

But even if you thumb further down the pages, reading carefully or just flipping forward to the ending, you may find the question still lingering—unanswered. 

Maybe it was marked in each of Cain’s plodding steps, now unable to find any rest on the earth—because the answer is and always has been yes.

You are your brother’s keeper. 

Responsible for the wellbeing of the people around you, whether you want to or not, a rule that can be broken, but only at what cost?… Read the rest