Pro - Life?

There is an inner struggle that has been building in me over the past few years that is anchored in the pro-life movement among evangelicals. The struggle is not about the message. My wrestling started with how the message is communicated. A number of years ago while reading and meditating on Isaiah 58 I was struck by a phrase. When I read it a picture formed in my mind that I have not been able to shake since - "If you do away with...the pointing finger and malicious talk...." (Isaiah 58:9). At that time the picture was of the pro-life movement and how venomous the messengers can be. The nature of political presence can be so intensely angry and spew hatred that espouses inner-tones that indicate hypocrisy. How can one hate another and say "I am a lover of life?"

Years after those first strokes upon a developing canvas, the painting has taken on new dimensions for me. If I am pro-life, I must be pro-all-of-life. Do senseless killings in the inner cities grieve me each time I hear a story? As I drive or walk down the street and see a dirty, drugged-out, lonely, homeless woman...do I weep? When I consider the level of child abuse - verbal, physical, et al - does it eat my lunch? Does war bother me? Do I really love and pray for my "enemies?" Does hunger and disease across the globe move me to wish I could just speak and remove it all!? Do I love as Jesus loved and gave himself? (Note: Jesus didn't just die on a cross, he also lived a life.) To these we may say, "Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times, YES!!"

Soooo...what are followers of Jesus doing about what are just some of the present, life-destroying realities mentioned above? What are you doing? How are you proving that you are a lover of life by being a restorer of life? God does include "...and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, THEN your light will rise in the darkness...." (Isaiah 58:10)

Oh, that we as followers of Jesus would be people who ooze his gracious and merciful power and presence! That we would be overwhelmed by the loss of life as it was when God in His triuned expressions at the beginning of time spoke a vision into reality!

Are you really pro-life?