Enter the Fray

Don't you look away. Don't you dare.

If any of what I have to say stands a chance of sinking in the way it ought to, you must start with the grotesque truth. 

Before writing this, I put images like this before my eyes for the first time in a little while. I'd seen the flash in a pan stuff associated with the videos that have been released this summer, exposing Planned Parenthood. But it had been a while since I sat and looked at a picture of an aborted child. Not an aborted fetus, an aborted child. 

Looking at images like this didn't take long to bring me to tears. Those tears were of grief, for the hideousness of the loss of precious life. They were tears of anger, as I almost snapped a sharpie in my hand from clenching it so hard, thinking that this has been allowed to go on over 40 years. They were tears of intervention, a desperate pleading for mercy from God - mercy on our country, where images like this are of something legal, and not a crime. 

I remember a time when, as a high schooler, I used to point out to others, in my frustration, how contradictory it was for the law to count as two deaths the death of a pregnant mother in an auto accident. "What if she was on her way to an abortion clinic??" I'd say, and plead for your agreement that this was so backwards. 

Somehow...to my shame...this issue has dimmed in the spotlight of my heart and mind over the years since I first grappled with it. But recently, God has nudged my conscience repeatedly, and I've had my moment of realizing I must do more. 

Have you had your moment? 

Take an extra 2 minutes - please! - and click the link below for a slice of a message at Hope Church, given last Sunday. For right now, listen from 21:30 to 23:40 (though I'd highly recommend setting aside the 42 minutes to listen to the whole thing when you can, or go check it out at www.hopeinjesus.org. 

Hope Sermon - "Called" Part 6: Fair Exchange

There is a lot of outcry in our lands today, for many different reasons. And if your personal outcry, about which you've already taken action and are passionately committed to making a difference, is something else besides this, God bless you in that. May you stand strong. May you "seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." 

But if not, listen up. God has called us. He has called you and I to do something about this.

In 2013, 3 people were killed by the explosion at the Boston Marathon, arranged by a terrorist. There was massive outcry for justice. 

In 1995, 168 people were killed in Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. There was a massive outcry for justice. When he was executed, you probably weren't sad about it. Maybe you even nodded in righteous approval. 

On September 11th, 2001, nearly 3,000 of our dear American citizens were killed when terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center towers. America went to war over it. The outcry still lives in the hearts of many, and we are a country divided to this day over the issue of how to view Muslims. 

Where is our outcry over abortion??

Where is our outcry over the 57,000,000 (that's 57 MILLION) babies who have died in America since the Roe v. Wade decision??

There are several reasons why we might not do something about this issue. The reason that it's not wrong, and that a woman has sacred rights to her own body that supercede those of anything/anyone growing inside her - - THIS reason is for a different discussion. If you uphold this reason, I really truly pray for you, and hope that your eyes are someday opened, and the lie is cast out. 

But other reasons exist too that have held far too great a power over us as Christians. We might agree it's terrible, yet feel powerless to change anything. "What can I do as one person?" might be the thought inside. Or we might feel at a loss for where to start. "What part of the warpath should I first step foot on?" we ask. 

Frankly, I think the biggest reason most of us do basically nothing is that we are like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are "overfed and unconcerned."

Hold on a second, you say. What gives you the right to lump us into that kind of company?

See what God said about Sodom and Gomorrah in Ezekiel 16:49-50:

"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:

She and her daughters were arrogant, 

overfed and unconcerned;

they did not help the poor and needy.

They were haughty and did 

detestable things before me.

Therefore I did away with them 

as you have seen."

Sounds like the masses in America, doesn't it? Sounds like the corruption, the moral backsliding, and the general apathy that's out there on account of being a society that, for the most part, has it better than 90% or more of the rest of the world's population. We have fast food chains whose coverage maps shame those of cell phone providers. We have our flat screens, our smartphones, our jacuzzis. We have our flex spending accounts, our grocery stores with entire aisles dedicated to just chips.We have our IMax theaters, our $200 Nikes, our sofa sectionals, and our "bling." We have our cake, and boy, do we eat it too. 

That passage also sounds like you and me. Don't shake your head or cross your arms at me. We have everything...except the time of day for causes that matter. 

Disagree? 

What do our calendars look like?

What do our spending histories look like?

What do we most cry over?

Is abortion still running rampant in our country? 

Don't our children still die in the womb or on cold metal trays because we choose in favor of ourselves and our comfort, or because we don't know we have other choices?

Don't women still get bullied by someone else into thinking abortion is her duty in her circumstance?

Don't people that we know go on down the road, led by the conformity to a politician's statement, or the murmur of the crowd on social media, simply because actual conversations with others about sensitive issues make us uncomfortable?

We are the apathetic ones. We are the ones ignoring the outcry. We are the ones preferring to play Judge instead of entering the fray and rolling our sleeves up and DOING SOMETHING about this. We are the ones who, by veritably sitting by and allowing injustice to happen over and over, are no better for that than those carrying out the heinous acts themselves. And meanwhile we content ourselves to think,

"Somebody else will do something."

Somebody else is YOU. Somebody else is ME. 

Enter the fray with me, brothers and sisters. Stand up against the injustice being done, and find a way - any way you can - to take action, in prayer AND donation. In prayer AND adoption. In prayer AND foster parenting. In prayer AND volunteering to get the word out there that there is another option besides ending new lives God has started knitting together in the womb. 

One such place you can begin is in support of an organization like WELS Lutheran for Life (www.alife2.com). Their mission is "Saving the life of a baby, transforming the family from at-risk to thriving, and doing it all again tomorrow." They need your prayers, they need your monetary first-fruits, and they even need your hands, feet, and voices! They are acting on behalf of God's children who cannot speak for themselves!

The point is, let's not sit idly by any longer. The outcry has been reaching God's ears for over 40 long years. We are God's church. We are his "church militant," as some like to say. Well, then let's get militant already. Let's form ranks. Let's put on the full armor of God, and with boldness and an audacity for justice, march out and take action in answer to the outcry in our land! 

Please.....don't ignore this. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you about this. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Enter the fray. 

For me, this all started because one day, I realized I'd only written my own posts on social media, or shared someone else's, about this issue...and that's it. One day God whispered to my soul that he wanted me to take a step (or a thousand, I don't know yet) farther than that. I have taken a couple steps onto the warpath for myself (beyond just writing this). I'm saying "Here am I, Lord, send me!" 

Will you? The warpath awaits, soldier.