I have an invitation to all my friends and peers in the sector who are in their 40's and 50's. 

While watching the events of yesterday's disaster in the Capitol, I found myself muttering to myself a conviction that has been building in me for a while. I kept saying to myself: We are the adults now. 

For too long, I have been conceiving of myself still as essentially a "youth" - not physically in my creaky body alas, but spiritually in the sense of responsibility for the world. Sure, I'll do my part - the way that youths do chores around the house. But deep down, I've been thinking that the "adults" - the recognized institutional leaders "out there" - they will be the ones who really take care of the house.

But yesterday is just the symbolic confirmation of the truth that "the adults" we are waiting for are not there - or at least that there are not nearly enough of them acting as true adults. 

And more importantly, we are the adults now. If you are in your 40's or 50's, wherever you have been placed, you are in the period of life when the combination of your experience and energy and institutional power is at its peak. It is our house now. It is time to step up. 

This will mean very different things for each of us, in all our very different contexts. But the same conviction should hold for us all: for whatever it is in the world that vexes, outrages, inspires, prompts you - now is the time to get moving, really moving. I'm not talking about scale the way the world measures it. I'm talking about spiritual intensity, a sense of deeper responsibility for whatever corner of the world that is your God given assignment.

The adults aren't coming. We are the adults.