living for eternity today

Tag: abortion

Your Life Matters

Your life matters. Yes, this is about you. The past couple of years have been pitting one person against another about whose life matters. Well the point is that life matters. The owner of life isn’t the point. The fact of life is what is vital.

I know that some will say it’s a copout to say that all life matters. But realize I did not say all lives matter. But that life matters. The life you live and the life your enemy lives – they both matter because life matters. But you don’t make your life matter because you’re a good person or a rich person or a person of a specific ethnic background. Your life matters because your life was a gift to you.

This week we focused on life issues. We talked about beginning of life issues and end of life issues. But we spent a lot of time looking at how we deal with those who don’t see matters of life the same way we see them.

It’s easy to make this whole topic of life matters something about politics or even race or age but it’s not about that at all. It’s about valuing each individual life as something special. Everyone has an opinion and everyone has seemingly their own viewpoint on this one. But the fact of the matter is all of our views are tainted with some bit of information we have coming into this. We think the concept of life matters is something about race. Or we think it’s all just a bunch of political bologna. And to a large extent that seems to be the case unfortunately.

But the truth is that life is not something we can determine. We have to let outside sources inform our understanding of life’s origin. We have to let the reality of the uniquenesses of the human condition help us better value lives of all shapes and sizes and points of origin.

Below is a message I gave on the value of life and why it’s so very important to have a proper understanding of ourselves before we can even have this conversation.

The Best Defense Is Intentional Offense

At the outset I’m going to admit that I will probably, inevitably offend or upset some of you. I’m sorry if you take offense by these thoughts but this is my belief based on my understanding of the Bible. But please understand that I am admitting there are two sides of this issue and I believe we cannot stop by merely addressing one side of it.

A recent ruling by the courts in Texas and then deemed Constitutional by the US Supreme Court put a block on the unnecessary killing of children still waiting to be born. This for some was a huge defeat but for others was a significant win. But if we stop here, I believe it’s actually a loss. It’s a loss because we’re making the whole scenario rest on the shoulders of the women. Only one woman has conceived a child by herself and she’s no longer walking this earth.

My personal perspective is that I operate from a pro-life point of view. That means that I value life from conception to the date God decides we leave this earth. This encompasses all life from womb to tomb and says that we are living beings in need of the utmost care and respect. I believe being pro-life means taking care of my neighbors and looking out for those in time of need. I believe it entails helping those who are down trodden and lifting up the fallen. It’s not just a matter of life and death but a matter of enhancing life as best we can.

The ruling to which I referred deals with one very small aspect of this matter. It drastically limits what someone can do to a viable life growing inside them. And I know this ruling puts a lot of pressure on women. I can respect the concern some women have over this which is why I’m going to let the ruling speak for itself and use the rest of my time here to address the men who led to this moment.

How dare we! Men we have neglected to be the life protecting people we are called to be. To be very blunt and direct, if you’re not going to take care of the woman and the child you better darn well keep that thing zipped up. I’m tired of hearing about women being the object of some self proclaimed man’s episode of fornication. I’m sickened by the men who think they can do what they want to a woman and then leave her when things get rough.

If we’re really going to address this matter of being a life cherishing society, we’ll teach these oversized boys in our culture to be men. We’ll teach them how to get up in the morning and hit the gym. We’ll teach them how to dress up and get a job. We’ll teach them to take up a trade and work for a living. We’ll teach them to provide for the woman before they knock her up. We’ll teach them to lift up not push down on those around them.

There are far too many boys dressed up like men playing a game of pretend. Get a job with your broke rear end son! Take some responsibility for crying out loud. If you’re mad, take it out on a punching bag not a woman.

When you realize the gift God gave you in the women around you, you’ll stop thinking you can just use them as a toy for your pleasure. This isn’t a game. It never has been. A woman or a child should not have to pay the price for your weakness.

There you have it. I’m pro-life. I for the life of the unborn child just as much as I am for the life of the woman who is carrying her. I’m for the man who needs to step up and be held accountable for his actions. You can’t put all of this on one person. We don’t have to agree on all the specifics but I sure hope we can agree that we all can do a better job of looking out for and loving those around us. We all can do a better job of holding one another accountable to a more intentional way of living. We all can do a better job of being the people with our actions that we claim to be with our words.

The best way to protect life is to teach the absolute value of it – all of it.

Untold

I remember that day like it was yesterday. There was no sound. I was no expert and had no experience but I was sure that when a child was born there should be some noise, some sound, something…anything. But as Matthew burst into this world it was not with a sound or a cry or even a breath. It was silent. He was lifeless. It wasn’t like any movie I had seen or story I had heard.

This moment was unexpected to say the least. All throughout the pregnancy things were good. The heart beat was heard weeks after conception. The fingers and toes of our unborn children could be seen with tremendous ease. As cells split and formed and parts were created it was an amazing story that remained yet untold.

I remember the day the ultrasound tech told us we were having twins. I was shocked and probably could have used some medical attention myself. Not one heartbeat but two of them beating in perfect unison to the point the sonogram didn’t catch two hearts beating. What an amazing story that remained still untold.

Every child has a story to tell. Some of those stories are told in tears and cries for help. Others are told in songs of joy. Still other stories are told in smile that child brings to her eagerly waiting parents. Whatever the story, however it’s to be told let them speak. In this day and age when we speak out in matters of injustice and demand that all lives matter, have we forgotten the untold stories of millions of children who never had a chance to tell theirs? Have we so easily trampled on the innocent just to protect our own appearance and preserve our pride?

There’s a story to be told in each pre-born breath. There’s a story to be told in every kick at a mother’s belly. We can’t let those stories go untold.

Matthew was born with no breath in his lungs yet his story wasn’t over. The doctors knew it. They could sense it. They pulled in equipment and additional staff. They did all they could as they prepared to insert the tube into his lungs to breathe for him. But little did they know his story was just beginning. You see the second his twin was born, red as red can be, belting out his own scream of life, then Matthew’s voice was heard.

Our children have stories to tell. It’s our job as parents to help them tell those stories. From inside the womb to their cries in the crib to their skipping home from that first day of school to the time they dawn that uniform and head off to their first tour of duty – your child has a story. Every child has a story and there is no choice to leave it untold. We are called and commanded to give voice to each one of these stories.

Today’s Music Monday is one fitting for today. Untold. Don’t leave any story untold.

Coloring Inside the Lines

Now I’m not one who normally likes to fit the typical mould. I stand out in a crowd more often than I blend in. I’d rather make my own picture than coloring one that someone else creates for me. But there are times when it’s necessary to color inside the lines. As a parent I try to teach my children to slow down and follow the boundaries of the pictures they are coloring. I like it when I see the picture of the teddy bear with two colors of brown, a darker for the fur on the body and a lighter color for the belly. It just looks like they took more care and time with it. The same is true with life. When we carefully take the time to shade our lives and color inside the lines, we begin to see a picture far better than anything we could draw ourselves.

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