I suppose there could not be a more vague title of a blog entry, but really, this is a blog about LIFE.
I’m hoping I can put into words what is coming together in my heart and mind, but I want to start with saying that three simultaneous things have been happening at the same time in my world.
One, there have been multiple deaths of young men (some babies, some teens, and some men) over the past few years in our community, and again thus far in 2023. While these deaths did not effect my family personally, I am praying for those families of course and pondering how they must feel. Waking up having to remember the shock all over again. Trying to understand how (or maybe even why?) they are to keep going. Photo frames never to be filled. No one has to explain to these parents that they need to value life. We cherish life and we fight for it. We do everything we can to keep it, and we do everything we can afterwards to honor it. We don’t even hesitate. Those lives were precious and everyone is broken when it is lost. At the funeral, the graveyard, and the hospital room, the gravity of the value of life tugs at us…and it should.
The second thing: Ethiopia is constantly on my heart and mind. I learned of a refugee camp there in a city we stayed in, where there are thousands of people who have been traumatized by tribal warfare, as well as newly orphaned children. Right now. 2023. Accessible people. Human lives. Sleeping on the ground without blankets. (Please see www.embracinghopeethiopia.come for more info on how you can help!) Traumatized by war, on the edge waiting for more possible fighting, lives are being snatched away because of greed and simply not believing that LIFE MATTERS. How can one life believe it is okay to take another life? What seeds of the enemy were planted to make tribes believe their lives matter more?
The third thing on my mind is our pregnancy care center here in Elizabethtown -Clarity Solutions. The abortion conversation (as the speaker reminded us last night at the annual fundraising gala) cannot be based upon feelings, desires, and opinions. It must be based upon facts, and specifically the answers to these two simple questions: “Is it okay to ever end a life?” and “When does life begin?” 100% of people (okay, minus some on death row, I’m sad to say) believe it is not okay to end someone’s life; 97% of biologists (not Christians, just biologists) state that mammalian life begins at conception. So regardless of the other factors on society, it is hard to rationally and reasonably deduct that ending life in the womb would ever be an appropriate answer. Calling it “reproductive care” is wrong. Abortion is death. In no other scenario do we say, “You are unwanted and therefore I have the right to kill you.” It is a tragedy. We have to find multiple other solutions and walk alongside women, their significant other, and their children in a holistic, long term way. This is what Clarity and many other ministries do.
These three scenarios and the thousands of people they affect are all tragedies. Some were preventable, some were not. But in going to the Clarity Gala, something sparked in me that brought all of these tragedies together. It is as simple and basic as it possibly can be, yet it is with a newfound strength that I say:
We must cherish all life.
ALL LIFE.
Zero exceptions.
Not tolerate, not coexist, but love, really love, souls – meditating on and believing the value and importance of each and every living human. The same grief we would feel at a funeral of a loved one…the same agony we feel at a hospital bedside…do we feel that for our enemies, for the unseen in our community, and in our worldwide community? We must not be afraid to love, feel, grieve, sacrificially give; fear of making no difference or just being a “one drop of water in the ocean” cannot be where we land and stay. After all, loving is about both a state of being AND doing. When we love and value others, we are lined up with His heart. When we see opportunities to serve others out of that love, we are doing it as His hands and feet.
I’m going to say it strong and clear: If we believe that any life is worth more than another, we are not aligned with God’s heart.
Christians are to be known by their LOVE. We have been so scared to be mistaken for agreeing with peoples’ choices and lifestyles that we have lost knowing how to love people. I think we can get back to that by agreeing with God that every single soul is beloved, made in His image, equal, and worthy to continue until He alone calls them Home.
There is nothing new under the sun. Adam’s son Cain was a murderer. First family on the planet, homicide. Cain did not value human life. Our thoughts and beliefs determine our feelings, then our words and actions, and eventually generations…The most important “moral” we can pass on to our kids is that God loves, values, and cherishes people and so must we.
