This Sunday, January 20, 2008, is sanctity of human life Sunday. And all over our nation preachers will be preaching sermons filled with statistics and graphic descriptions of abortion and the underlying mindset of it all. But I for one, cannot bear the statistics and the descriptions of abortion. I cannot bear it. It may be my weakness to keep my head buried in the sand as it is, but it simply pains me too much to read.
The reason, I think, for the pain of it all is the heartache that my wife and I have had over having children. First, in the thirteen months that it took us to conceive our son, thinking that it would never happen. And then, through the pain of our miscarriage last year. The sheer value that I place on babies is much too enormous to even think about someone who would not want a child.
But, it would be very easy for me to look at someone who has had an abortion or to look at a doctor who has performed abortions and to say, “How could you?” and refuse to offer grace to them and refuse to extend to them the forgiveness that I have freely received in Jesus Christ. The fact of the matter is this; Jesus said,
21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. (Mt.5:21-22)
So as wrong as abortion is and as much as I would and do support efforts to reverse Roe vs. Wade, I cannot in good conscience look upon someone else who is guilty of murder and not sense the murder that lives in my own heart through anger. God has loved me, His enemy, when I was unlovable and extended grace to me in the cross of Jesus Christ and it is my prayer that I will learn to love my enemies as God has loved me. As it says in Luke 6:35-36, "But love your enemies ... for [God] is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."
The reason, I think, for the pain of it all is the heartache that my wife and I have had over having children. First, in the thirteen months that it took us to conceive our son, thinking that it would never happen. And then, through the pain of our miscarriage last year. The sheer value that I place on babies is much too enormous to even think about someone who would not want a child.
But, it would be very easy for me to look at someone who has had an abortion or to look at a doctor who has performed abortions and to say, “How could you?” and refuse to offer grace to them and refuse to extend to them the forgiveness that I have freely received in Jesus Christ. The fact of the matter is this; Jesus said,
21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. (Mt.5:21-22)
So as wrong as abortion is and as much as I would and do support efforts to reverse Roe vs. Wade, I cannot in good conscience look upon someone else who is guilty of murder and not sense the murder that lives in my own heart through anger. God has loved me, His enemy, when I was unlovable and extended grace to me in the cross of Jesus Christ and it is my prayer that I will learn to love my enemies as God has loved me. As it says in Luke 6:35-36, "But love your enemies ... for [God] is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."
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