Three pillars of our culture built the foundation for pursuing the American dream.
Planning. Wanting. Ability.
If we plan well enough, if we want something badly enough, if we throw our full ability behind our cause, we will succeed.
It all sounds shiny and hopeful and very American.
Over the last thirty plus years, these same three gifts of the American spirit have mutilated and twisted into weapons of destruction. We misused our influence to stand only for ourselves and our interests, exposing our deepest personal and societal shortcomings.
Any deviation from our plan must be rejected, and unwanted turns and inconveniences are immediately destroyed. The relentless pursuit of our plans, wants, and abilities has led to tragic loss of life. Millions of Americans have been killed.
I’m talking about abortion.
Unplanned. Unwanted. Disabled.
Three words unveil our deepest cultural idols. They show us what we value most because we justify killing for them.
We use our plan, our wants, and our abilities as the guidelines to define the worth of people, our own children even. We claim tolerance of everyone as long as they stay out there and don’t invade the life we always wanted, as long as they fit our plan, our desires, and present without defect.
Unwanted, Unplanned, and Disabled are the primary reasons deemed acceptable to end innocent human life in the greatest nation on the face of the earth. They are literally to die for.
The message we are sending is this: When my life becomes inconvenient or hard or not according to my script, I have the right by whatever means possible to end the life of another person, my own child, all for the sake of my plan, my want, my ability or the disability of another.
We fail to value and affirm the sanctity of human life and every area of our nation suffers as a result. We wonder why women are sexually assaulted, children abused and gunned down in their schools, hate crimes committed, kids bullied at school, human beings trafficked into slavery, and a host of other unfathomable atrocities.
The truth is we diluted the value of all life and treatment of all the vulnerable when we legalized abortion. If I don’t like someone, if someone makes me uncomfortable or inconvenienced, if they are disabled, I can expunge them.
This is how our logic plays out, like it or not. We don’t suddenly land on the moral high ground when we start raising the children we deem wanted or planned or able. We are drowning in a culture that celebrates killing as a solution to our difficulties. The feminine gift of growing life is now a celebrated chamber of death. Abortion is no longer rare…women are encouraged to SHOUT their abortion.
Many of my pro-choice friends are appalled by Donald Trump’s alleged mocking of a disabled reporter, but they rally and march for a woman’s right to murder her child simply because he is disabled. They will disavow hate crimes because the perpetrator is racist or sexist, but they defend a woman’s right to kill just because a baby is inconvenient or not what she wants.
The pro-life movement is not simply anti-abortion. As a nation we must be pro-life by caring for the immigrant, the refugee, the disabled, the marginalized...but many of these people are labeled inconveniencing, unplanned, unwanted, and disabled. How can we love them well if we don't value the lives of all who are labeled this way?
I understand abortion is a complex issue, and I am barely scratching the surface here on the poverty, abuse, rape, and hopelessness pervading our culture that make abortion a plausible option for so many. But I would suggest that hard circumstances, even wrongdoing, does not justify another wrong.
The solution to your poverty is not murder.
The solution to your rape is not murder.
The solution to your abuse is not murder.
Sin always leads to death, but Jesus came so all might have life and have it abundantly.
He was talking about our babies, too.
Scripture teaches us that our offspring are a blessing and an inheritance from the Lord. When we abort our babies, we are like the prodigal son who squanders his inheritance and ends up eating from the pig trough, when God made us for a banquet feast. We exchange the truth for a lie and sacrifice our greatest blessings- our inheritance- for empty things.
All of us are deeply flawed and sinful. All of us.
But God wants us. He planned us. And He is able to accomplish a good work in each of us.
Our only hope is in the One who perfectly plans everything unplanned, who satisfies all our wants, and who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.
This is a matter of life and death. We can not be silent.
This is why we march.
My fingers are marching on my keyboard since my feet can’t be in Washington, DC for the March for Life today.
I will march in my heart, in my prayers, and in my conversations. I hope to march on from today with compassion in word and deed and ultimately in truth.
Will you march with me?
#whywemarch #istand4life
“Compassion is overcoming convenience and hope is defeating despair.”
- Mike Pence, VPOTUS
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If you are reading this and have had an abortion, this is not meant to shame you or to inflict additional pain or guilt. There is hope for us all only in Jesus who covers all of our mistakes and shortcomings in His perfect blood. He died on the cross for our sins so that we would no longer live in bondage to our past and present imperfections. We have freedom in Christ when we trust Him, when we repent, when we follow Him. He give us confident access to the Father, God, who has great plans for our lives. We all sin. We all fall short. But with Jesus, we can walk in newness of life and He will use our stories for His glory. Will you trust Him with yours?
