You're not Pro-life you're Pro-birth

You got me.
It's true.
I'm one of those wacky pro-birth folks.   I am pro-babies being allowed to be born.
I can't help it.  Somehow it just seems natural to me.

I love it when babies are born.

Regardless of the circumstance of their conception, or even what sort of condition they are born into, I have a strong conviction that they should be welcomed simply because they exist...simply because they are a unique human life.  They are not a "potential life" they are a life with potential.  To be honest even if they didn't have "potential" as judged by the world, they still don't deserve to be sentenced to an unnatural death.

So, I will admit it, and actually wear the label with honour.  Pro-birth.

For some reason that term is used as a sort of weapon.  It tends to give people a good chuckle, as they smugly high five each other for coming up with some worn out, non offensive, rhetoric.   But, I guess if that's all you've got, go ahead and call people nonsensical names like pro-birth, "fetusfetishist"  or "fetuphile".  Because that makes you sound all progressive and clever...really.  *wink'*

"You don't actually care about babies after they're born, you only care about fetus's."  

 It's such a silly stereotype. It just really needs to be put out of it's misery.

It's like saying "you don't actually care about Kindergartners you only care about toddlers!"

 I can't, for the life of me, make that logic work.   If you care about Kindergartners, you will protect the right of the toddlers to live long enough to become one.  If you claim to care about children you will fight to protect the rights of ALL children regardless of age, gender, race, developmental stage, or location.  That's called equality.

 You have to first be a fetus in order to become a baby that is born, just like you have to be a toddler before you can become a Kindergartner.  They are not two different people, or two different entities, they are different stages of development.  I am pro- embryo, pro-fetus, pro- neonate, pro-infant, pro-toddler, pro-preschooler, pro-child, and pro-adolescent.  They are all simply classifications for different ages of a human child.

Call me an extremist but I have a very strong hunch that dismembering a defenseless child is wrong.
 I know it's kind of an "out there" theory, but it's one I'm sticking with.

I would call that position "pro-life" but I'll proudly wear the "pro-birth" label too...if you insist.

By the way, I am also pro-first day of Kindergarten, pro-gotcha day,  pro-losing a first tooth, and pro-wedding day.  I guess I'm just  "pro" any big events that signify the graduating from one stage of life into another.   I'm just sentimental that way I suppose.

I am both pro-birth and pro-life...because it's pretty hard to have one without the other.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Life

Today I was home with just my three littlest.  

It felt like a day to do little kid's stuff, and the weather was perfect.

Who knew an old baby bathtub could be turned into a tiny splash pool, or water gun reloading station?

Elijah LOVES water.  He calls the sprinkler "rain" and it's pure joy.

It's the simple things.

Letting my anemic winter hardened soul soak up the colour and warmth. 

We've had so much rain this summer that our grass is a gorgeous green, it was only mowed a few days ago and it already needs it again!

It really is amazing how much fun little kids can have with a hose and a couple containers to fill.  It's a good thing we don't pay for our water though.

I've been thinking a lot lately about life, and how many lies we, as a society in general believe about it.   

I don't have time or brain function right now to express in detail how callously our world views children, how narcissistic we are, or how tragic I think that is...but here are a few rambling thoughts on the topic.

Just this week I watched America cheer and make a hero out of a woman who is championing barbaric late term abortions.  Justified by the god of "choice" and exploiting stories about children who would have been born disabled, or with with some other imperfection.  We applaud these eugenics killings like they are a courageous, merciful and harrowing decision a mother must make, when in reality it's profound selfishness and discrimination at it's worst.   But that's the thing, the world is blind...and only God can make the blind see.  

So here is my little blog, my little family, and my little story to stand as witness.

No doctor, no parent, no politician, and no media personality can predict the quality of another persons life, or arrogantly assume that they know what that even means.  

Here we are as a living, breathing counter cultural testimony that "quality of life" has nothing to do with wealth.   It has nothing to do with being able to give our children every material advantage.  It has nothing to do with family size.   It has nothing to do with savings accounts, retirement plans, and golf club memberships.  It has nothing to do with being born into a picture perfect family lineage. It has nothing to do with positive or negative blood tests.  It has nothing to do with years spent in school, or letters behind our names, or qualifications hung on a wall.....but it has everything to do with love, with sacrifice, with surrender, and with living the messy life God gave us for his glory. 

 Our "quality of life" has everything to do with seeing God's good design and sovereignty even in our weakness, disability, chronic illness and heartache.  We fix our eyes on beauty, but we refuse to close our eyes to the pain.  We embrace both, trusting the One who sees what we cannot see. 

Our society has an illusion of control, and when something happens that it cannot control it rallies, and rages, and rails against it.  It exterminates the "problem".

So often the children are seen as the problem...rather than our own quest for perfection and comfort.

I stand here not only as a testament to God's daily grace and His ability to multiply our little loaves and fishes, but to the reality that every life has purpose and value.  I use the word "potential" sparingly because it implies that our children's worth is yet to be seen or will come with future accomplishments. 

It doesn't matter if a baby is conceived under the worst possible circumstances, or born into a horrible situation, or diagnosed with a disability, or is unplanned for and  "unwanted", or is the offspring of a tragic lineage....NO child is a lost cause,

and no child is inherently disposable. 

I think my children would agree.

Whether a life lasts for only a few minutes, or for 100 years...there is purpose in that life.  Whether a child becomes a neurosurgeon, or is the child that the neurosurgeon cannot fix...

neither are born outside of Imago Dei.  None are conceived without the Creators touch, or outside of his Sovereign will. 

"Church, please, do not let the language of law or property guide how we think of the children God gives us. Children — all children in every circumstance from every part of the world of every color and ethnicity and physical or cognitive ability — are not chattel. Children are not chattel. They are rewards and blessings from our gracious heavenly Father, for his glory and for our eternal good."  John Kinght

I get to witness the beautiful reality of that every single day, 

because of that, the enemy's lie, and destructive purpose is so clear.  

My heart is torn open by it. 

The lie is so pervasive even many who consider  themselves part of the "Church" are deceived by the smooth words, and subtle poison.  Whole denominations have abandoned the cause of the weak, the voiceless, and the "least of these" among us and traded it for a politicly correct cause that seeks power, control, and sets "self" up as a god as it shouts "It's MY body!"

 Blind guides.

  

Wide is the road that leads to destruction, and that is certainly true when it comes to accepting the destruction of our worlds most vulnerable children. 

My body is not my own, it is laid down, used up, and poured out.  

"Though a poison should threaten to kill, I know my Savoir reigns

 when the breezes of death leave a chill, I've got Jesus' blood in my veins. 

So I feel like alive with a life that's not mine and I believe that's your intended design"

Imago Dei

Imago Dei.   A fancy Latin way of saying
Image of God.
It's kind of fun to say, and may even make you sound smart which is important if you're blonde.

Imago Dei is a foundational belief in Christianity.  When it is understood and applied it effects how we  live and reflect God's image.


Life.
Why do I value it?

As a human race we are creative because God is creative.
We love beauty because God loves beauty.
We have a sense of order and justice because God does.
We love to laugh because God is fun.
We strive to do good, because God is good.
We seek meaningful relationships because God is in perfect complete relationship within the trinity.
We crave communication because God communicates and revealed himself to us.

We ALL mirror his image, although we have become shattered mirrors distorting what was.

We are made in his image but we are not, and never will be, gods ourselves.
There are  many attributes of God that are unique and belong only to Him.

If we genuinely believe that humans are made in the image of God, that we mirror his attributes, that we are created intentionally, with eternal significance, than it will change how we treat each other.
How would my life look different?

If we truly believe the doctrine of Imago Dei then there is no room for racism or bigotry.   There is no room for "I am better than you", "don't waste your money"  or "They aren't worth my time" because Jesus died for all people, each shattered reflection, so that we could once again mirror his glory and receive a  reconciled relationship with him.

If we could  look at the weak, poor, young, old, black, white, unborn, sick, and disabled in light of the very basic doctrine Imago Dei how different would our lives and priorities be?

It would mean that we  honor and give dignity to all human life.  The homeless guy on the corner.  The drug addicted baby abandoned in a hospital.  The emaciated child dying alone in a foreign country.  The person living with a debilitating disability.  The infant waiting to be born.  Why?
Why are they worth my time,
energy,
money,
tears,
mercy,
grace,
compassion,
love?
In the worlds eyes, in terms of evolutionary progress, we should leave them behind.
Let nature take it's course.
Eliminate those that are not planned, perfect, and productive.
Sacrifice some for whatever we see as the "greater good" of human progression.

Even the baby boy who will never utter a word , or stand on his feet, reflects something of God to this Earth, something that we will miss if we cast him aside, or have him exterminated.

 We are also commanded to reflect God to him with mercy, empathy, compassion and love.
In doing so we are not only honoring that life but we are honoring the one who created it.

 In order for this doctrine to become more than just cold  knowledge,  in order to have more than just good intentions,  I need to have God's authentic love breathing through me.
Loving the unlovely takes more than mere human effort.
Even then, I am only a vague reflection.
I so  often overlook  opportunities to reflect Him, because I'm so focused on my own reflection.

Unwanted

I came across a blog "ticker" recently counting the women and babies victimized by abortions.  As much as I don't really care for cliche bumper sticker type advertisements for causes  this one caused me to stop and think for a minute.
So often we become so immune to reality.  We pick our "causes", what we stand for and what we don't, and we close our eyes to everything else.  Sometimes we wear those like a badge, and identify ourselves by them.
We are "pro", or  "anti" we are advocates for one thing or another.  We consider ourselves activists if we put a cheesy bumper sticker on our cars or copy and paste a button or ticker onto our website.

Numbers mean very little to us.   Big deal. Tens of thousands of children will die of starvation and preventable disease today.  So what?  My kids have plenty to eat.    Abortion kills more than 46,000,000 children each year.  Oh well.  They weren't wanted anyway. They weren't really human.  They would have just been a burden to society.

It's easy to appease our consciences with rationalization.

It's easy to have no conscience at all.

Right now I'm glancing over at my little girl sitting in her highchair gobbling up pieces of zuchinni bread.   Her hair is a mess of wild unruly curls.  Her dark brown eyes captivate me.   Her flirting joyful smile puts a smile on my own face.   My heart is so filled with love for this girl that sometimes I think it might burst.  She explores, smooches, plays and giggles her way through each day.

Just one glance at this girl and all our justifications are exposed for the lies that they are.

The reality is,
not too long ago she was an unwanted, unplanned for "fetus".
She is a statistic.   A result of a broken society and a hurting people.   She is the "burden on society" we desire to extinguish.  She was the inconvenience to someones lifestyle.  She was the human "weed" that the founder of Planned Parenthood, and her eugenics ideology sought to extinguish.  Born poor, diseased, a racial minority, and budding out of a family tree riddled with pain and crime.  She was what justifies the abortion industry in the eyes of our society.

I look at my beautiful daughter...
and suddenly those numbers on the ticker have a face.

By all  secular reason, logic, and rationalization she never should have been born.

Sadly, I have never met her birth mother.  I pray that someday I will.   I want to thank her.  I want to love her as the woman who gave life to my child...the one who gave her gorgeous eyes.

I don't know if this pregnancy was continued  intentionally or if our girl was born by default, but I know there are a lot of people in the world who would insist that it should have been ended.  One more child murdered by choice.  One more problem solved.

I understand that this world is complicated.  So many issues.  So many root causes.  Generations of brokenness, addictions, and hurt.
A culture that values selfishness and convenience over life.
There are no easy solutions.  So many babies abandoned, neglected or destroyed by the addictions of their mother before they are ever born.   It is a problem.
I don't pretend to have all the answers...

but I know the One who does.
His purposes cannot be silenced.


I grieve for what my daughter was exposed to before she ever took her first breath.
I don't hate her biological mother for it.

I am sad for her mother, for all that she has lost.
My heart breaks for her as another human being, as a mother who has lost a child.
What road has she travelled to take her to that place?

Orphans are easier to ignore before you look into their eyes and know their names.   Unwanted, abused, and abandoned children are easier to cast aside to be dealt with by government programs before they turn your world upside down.  "Unwanted" babies are easier to silence  before they take their first breath and look you in the eyes.

Holding a sign or a flaunting a bumper sticker is all fine and good but....
where are the homes and the hearts waiting to embrace the unprepared frightened mother and the "unwanted" baby?

It's easier to condemn, justify  and overlook.

Although no one in this world was fighting for our precious Miss Cece while she was in her mothers womb. God was knitting her together for a purpose.
He was protecting her little body and mind.
He was drawing her out of the wreckage for his glory.
If only to give us a glimpse of his heart.


The truth is she was never unwanted.  There wasn't a moment of her existence that she was unloved or unknown by the one who gave her life.

"A nation that kills it's own children is a Nation without hope"  Pope John Paul II

Why is it so hard to just take a stand?

This blog is a journal of sorts, random thoughts and updates about my life which as you may have noticed focuses a lot on my family and my role as a mother. You may also have noticed that my faith is not just a piece of my life neatly tucked away in a box to open on Sunday and then put on the shelf again as I resume life as usual. Rather my faith and relationship to my Creator, Savior and Lord is the thread that the tapestry of my life is made of. It can no more be separated from any area of my life than the thread can be pulled from the artistry of that tapestry. Therefore as I write this "journal" it will be a mix of all kinds of things that are on my heart and the events of my life...the joyful, the ugly, the silly , the mundane....everything that makes this Mosaic of my life .

With that said, there is something that I can not get off my mind. Maybe its all the recent politics and debates that have me thinking. I follow politics but I try not to become so emotionally involved in them that I cannot keep a bigger perspective on life and Gods ultimate sovereignty. I find though that God repeatedly brings me to my knees, literally, and allows me a glimpse of his heart for humanity and this world...I can't really explain it with words. This is not by any means said in arrogance or in claiming that I know the mind of God. Not even close. Who can know the mind of God and mystery of everything he is? As we become closer to him , in an actual relationship and we allow the spirit of God to fill every part of our lives, we start to see things through his eyes of His mercy, compassion, grace, love and holiness. Its not an easy way to go around looking at the world...trust me ..it would be SO much easier to live a self focused, my comfort and happiness is my ultimate priority, kind of life...oblivious to pain and suffering around me. To have your heart torn open on a regular basis and to have the veil of self preservation pulled back is an uncomfortable place to be, because it demands action. So often though I fall short before the actual action takes place. I like to think, ponder, read about...but am usually afraid to actually rock the boat or step out and put my own heart on the line. Its safer to play armchair referee and complain about all the crap in the world. When I said in my first blog that I am a closet activist, I wasn't joking...its a confession. I can joke about it , but in actuality I should be ashamed of it.

Throughout the written history of Gods relationship with humanity he is actively concerned about how we care for each other and treat each other. This is particularly evident through the books of the prophets (people God used to carry his message). His heart for the poor, the voiceless and the oppressed are expressed over and over again. The book of Amos (a Shepard sent to Israel with an unpleasant message from God) he writes

" They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.
They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed...."

" Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks"! The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks...." (he is not referring to actual cows here but to the fat , lazy, rich woman concerned only with themselves)

Over and over God appeals for the proud, rich and self righteous people of this nation to turn back to him ...but in their own pride they" do what is right in their own eyes" instead, living for the pleasure of the moment. God uses invading armies and poverty to remind them where their security lies..not in their perceived wealth or their own strength...but in the Rock of their salvation, God himself.

God's heart for the helpless, the voiceless, the oppressed ,the enslaved and the poor is a theme that runs throughout the Bible... secondary of course to his romancing a lost humanity to himself and his gift of redemption. How can we as a society and especially those of us who call ourselves Christians , not represent his heart while we go about wearing his name and seeking his blessing. God is a "Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows". Christ discusses on many occasions defending the orphans and widows, he's not only telling us to help exclusively the orphans and widows but those that are without a voice or anyway to rise above their situation with out help. In that age and culture a child or a woman without a husband was without money, means or defense and was easily exploited and trampled on. Translated into our culture I see our responsibility being to care for those who are suffering, those living in poverty not of their own choosing, the millions of orphans around the world, the single mom struggling to raise her kids alone, the immigrant, the child slaves, the children sold as "shrine prostitutes" or child soldiers, the voiceless and helpless millions of babies being murdered in the name of convenience ...the list is overwhelming at times.

I hate how we've divided so many of these Social Justice issues and made them political. Any of these things that break Gods heart should break ours also....and in doing so should call us to act on their behalf...even when unpopular to do so. Some of these issues are trendy right now, not that there are a lot of people actually sacrificially giving of themselves, but there are a lot of people who like to talk about them. On the other hand some of these issues are very taboo "extreme" and "scary" to those who have politicized them.

In my opinion you can't fight to protect the rights of only some of the voiceless, some of the oppressed or only those humans deserving of human rights. It makes no sense to me....how have we become so calloused? Unfortunately common sense is to often lost in political correctness , fear tactics and rhetoric. Protecting those who cannot protect themselves in not a "right wing" "left wing" issue , its a issue of humanity and compassion.

How easily our society can take a grave and abhorrent wrong and , because of popular opinion...or because of the opinion of a few that yell the loudest.... it is made into a "right" or even called a "choice". It has happened throughout history. I think the biggest civil rights tragedy of our 'modern' world is the "right to choose" to end a unique, individual human life. Tragic and horrific beyond words. I think some day humans in the future will look a back at our culture and shake their heads in disgust....similar to the way we look back in horror and disgust at the tragedy of slavery, the holocaust, child sacrifice or the gladiator games. Which by the way were all considered "right" and legal at different points in history.

We need to have a standard to follow a compass to guide us ....our own depraved minds and hearts will always lead us toward destruction of those easiest to destroy, whether its tormenting the geeky kid in our class, taking advantage of the children working in sweat shops by buying those products, using more than our share of the worlds food and resources in North America , or ending the life of a human who is looked at as an inconvenience. We are either on the side of defending and bringing change...or we are on the side of "to each his own....do what is right in your own eyes....we can't legislate morality". That last part gets me a little riled up.

What if all the people who fought to bring an end to the horrific slave trade just shrugged their shoulders, and in fear of rocking the boat just said

" I don't necessarily agree with slavery, I think its wrong myself but I don't believe in preventing those who want to buy slaves from doing so....its between them and God....its a matter of freedom of choice...I'm not pro-slavery, I'm pro-choice." Can we get anymore wishywashy?

We legislate "morality" all the time, last time I checked its illegal to rape and murder someone, its illegal to steal someones car, its illegal to drive too fast or intoxicated because it might hurt someone. We have become so blinded by those who would have us turn and look the other way while atrocities are being committed under our noses. We have our ears filled with those screaming lobbyists protecting "roe vs. wade"and those poor "rape and incest victims"...and of course what about a mothers "health". We have closed our eyes to the facts of the grim reality of what we are allowing...and the blood that will be on our hands by allowing it. By the way, the total number of abortions that happen because of rape, incest or a mothers "health" are far less than one percent combined. Why does the exception dictate the rule? Well over 99 percent of abortions happen in the name of convenience and as an afterthought birth control....why can we not protect those millions being murdered with no reason other than inconvenience ?(and dare I suggest even the lives of those who had no choice in the manner of their conception or paternity...ooohh..thats walking on glass even suggesting such a thing) We stop thinking critically about the facts and let the tide of rhetoric pull us along. What if, instead of acting like lemmings following the lies, the half truths, the political rhetoric and fear tactics ....lets start asking some intelligent questions like .
"How can it be my right to take another persons life?"

"If the mothers life is actually at stake in the last trimester of pregnancy why does this need to result in a late term abortion?" Why can't an effort be made to safely deliver the baby ,even prematurely, and save both lives?...

Why is my tax money going to pay for another womens after- thought birth control? ...the gov't doesn't pay for any other elective surgeries.

Why when a baby is gestationally old enough to be viable is it ripped from the womb and murdered in the birth canal instead of just being delivered and given to a waiting family?

Why is a baby who survives an abortion left to die...isn't that infanticide?

hmmm...I think there are people who don't want us asking these questions and will silence us with their screams of worn out cliches and lies.

Why are woman exploited and encouraged to have abortions when they are at their most vulnerable and desperate...why aren't they loved, encouraged and given real options?

Why when a mother is given the devastating news that her child will not be the child she had dreamed he would be...rather he has down syndrome, or some other survivable condition deemed imperfect by societies standards....is she strongly encouraged to abort and given all the worst case scenarios of life with this special child. Why is she not encouraged to connect with other families and prepare for his arrival armed with knowledge and joyful expectation? I just don't get it.

I am not speaking from ignorance on this topic or naive idealism, I have faced and experienced changed plans, dashed dreams and choices I never thought I would be faced with. I have cared for a special needs foster child and realize the challenges. Life is messy, life is hard, life is full of the unexpected.... but that doesn't absolve me of my responsibilities as a human and as a Christian...and it certainly doesn't give me permission to take another life or stand by and allow others to do so.

I am in no way judging the victims of abortion.... woman are true victims of these lies that we are fed and have been exploited in the name of "womans rights", bearing the physical and emotional scars for a lifetime.

On the contrary lets start asking questions, looking at facts and get off that fence we are so comfortable straddling. Lets stop villanizing politicians ( who seem to be professional fence sitters) , whining and blaming and start effecting changes in our own hearts and attitudes. Lets uphold the rights of and demand justice for the oppressed, the marginalized, the suffering and the voiceless in our world.

What about opening our own wallets , using our own voices or going with our own feet instead of being armchair referees? It starts with us reassessing our priorities and looking beyond ourselves.


" He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it"
Martin Luther King jr.


" Never forget everything Hitler did in Germany was legal" Martin Luther King jr.