Abortion Undertones and Overtures: Open Letters to You, and You

Don't worry.  I'm not going to talk incessantly about abortion without reprieve.  I will focus on it a bit in the weeks to come, as I've already begun, but it won't take over completely.   

Honestly, the whole abortion debate can easily wear us out, can't it?  And that's too bad.  I hope I'm able to address it in an enlightening, refreshing, new, and yet galvanizing way that ignites our passion for change.  I already have rumblings in my rumbler about how to take a new approach, how to look forward with hope rather than standing down in the mire, combative, doing the same thing we've always been doing.  I think we can pull out of the mire.

In that spirit, then, before I post any more about it, I want my heart to be laid as bare before you as I possibly can.  As I said, the way the battle's been fought has been so. very. wearying and emotionally charged.  But we all have a responsibility to fully understand what's really going on, so I just can't look away.  And I refuse to hold strong opinions without having personally looked into it myself so as to get all the relevant facts, a process I started several years ago.  (It can be arduous, and I hope that what I unfold here is helpful to you.)

In short, here's what I'd like to say to those who disagree with me, and moreso what I'd like to say to anyone who has had an abortion or who has been closely involved in such a situation.

My heart is for you.  I know a lot of good people that I admire who have been in both camps.

The things that I will uncover here are upsetting, but they are not--may I repeat, NOT--a personal attack on human beings who are facing life the best they know how.  My research goes much deeper than that in an attempt to help us all.  I hope to unveil a new approach to this debate that says we are all capable of joining our compassion and fight to find and perpetuate a better way.  I think the majority of people on both sides of the debate are honestly trying to "fight the good fight."  I do not think that people who support abortion are also secret serial killers in the dark hours of the night.  I also believe that most women who get abortions do not do so without some sort of emotional revolt on some level, nor would they want to choose it if they felt they had any other viable option. 

So here goes.

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Dear You, You Who Fight with Passion for Abortion Rights,

I do not want to scream and claw at you.  I believe that your intentions are good.  From my experience, you on the grassroots level are compassionate for the plight of women in trouble.  I love that and think we all should fight for those who need help and support.  I also believe that some of you think that even if a woman isn't in trouble, she still just has the right, whatever her reasons, to an abortion--that she shouldn't have to answer for it or defend herself, that she should be secure in her right to determine what's best for her body.  You have a heart for people's rights, unmeddled with.  You're against any sort of restrictions that would tell us how we can and cannot manage our own most private affairs.  Regarding the last two statements, you and I are largely on the same page.  On this particular issue, though, a full picture causes my thoughts to deviate from yours, as there are two lives with inherent rights in the balance.  But I get it.  And I will not brush you off.  If I disagree with you, I do not hate you.  This is a bigger issue than just you and I or any individual, and I hope we all can transcend the chaos, unencumbered by preconceived notions and emotional alliances, for a glimpse of the truth.

(If you are a politician or medical practitioner/affiliate or a corporation, or anyone, who merely makes your decisions based on how it will profit you personally, this letter does not apply to you.  I feel very differently about you and your motives.)

Sincerely,
Jennifer

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Dear You, You Who Has Had an Abortion,

My heart is for you.  I definitely do not hate you.  I might know you.  I am not pointing an angry finger at you.  My problem with abortion is not a problem with you.  Most of you I don't know, but some of you I do.  From my experience with those I do know, all I want to do is hold you and listen to you, or give you space and grace, or whatever you need.  I cannot imagine your circumstances, but I do know what it's like to be in a tight place that feels out of my control, or to be faced with something that was just the last thing I felt I could deal with.  I also know what it's like to feel caught-off-guard, defensive, scared, distrustful, grieved, annoyed, desperate, misunderstood, unheard, undervalued, disappointed, confused, exposed, indignant.  I know some of you could care less what I've ever felt and don't want my hug or listening ear.  I guess my deeply rooted feeling is that I think we all need support.  I don't know if you got, or get, support or not.  But as I unfold my findings and thoughts about abortion, I pretty constantly imagine what it must be like for someone who's had one to read my words, and I do not want to create pain.  I pray for the strength and bravery we all need to face such an issue.

My conclusions are not a judgment against you.  Heavens, no.  They are a judgment against a mindset that  has been dishonest with all of us.  Whatever any of us has done in the past, is truly in the past.  If it was right, wonderful.  If it was not right, we can be healed and forgiven and forgive ourselves and be thankful for second, third, fourth...chances.  My prayer is for tremendous grace to cover anyone who might have a hard time facing what I'll be writing here.  I need the grace to face it, too.  And I remove any incrimination from settling onto anyone who has every right to move on with her life in strength and dignity, by the grace of God, armed with the truth. 

Sincerely,
Jennifer

Looking Away Is Cowardice--Let's Face It Together

Ah, humanity.  We humans have proven ourselves capable of a whole spectrum of behavior from self-sacrificing love to horrific and gruesome hate.  From the first apostles to Nero, Mother Teresa to Hitler, we have just really run the gamut of behavior.

Did you know that most Germans had no idea what Hitler was doing during the time of the Holocaust?  After the fact, when they were taken to tour concentration camps and witness the carnage, they were devastated and bewildered.  I mean, of course they were!  All of us recall that part of history with the same reaction (or we should).  It's awful to be faced with such truth.  It was inhumane.  He chose specific populations and decided that those lives were not as valuable as the rest, not based on crimes committed, but rather on general prejudice in the assumption that those races or groups of people (e.g. the disabled) were fighting for space that more appropriately belonged to superior races (like the Germans, naturally).  Keeping those other guys around was inconvenient and not good for "the rest of us," so said the Nazis.

(We can all think of a handful of people that make our lives inconvenient, but we don't round 'em up and off 'em.  That's insane.  Hitler was a mad man.)

We saw similar confusion about the intrinsic value of all human life when we waded through the whole horrible era of slavery.  Of course, it's been going on throughout time and still haunts our modern world in the form of the booming business of sex trafficking.  And oh my, to devalue those lives in such a way makes us indignant, as it should until it's brought buckling down to its knees. 

Then I see the purity of goodness in so many around me from all walks of life and backgrounds and political affiliations.  I see more of that than I do the bad, to tell the truth.  These bad incidents are so yucky and often so horrifying in scope that they seem huge, but I see goodness everywhere!  I have friends who would go out of their way to not step on an ant, so great is their respect and compassion for life. 

Imagine, then, how horrified I was just earlier today to find out that in our civilized society, we still participate in what is very similar to the torture and execution method of human quartering--that is, forgive me, the tearing apart of living people limb by limb. 

But we do it to babies while they're still alive.  I honestly had NO IDEA that was the primary method of performing an abortion.

Did you? 

I bet a lot of people don't know it, those for and against.  And we all ought to know.  We ALL MUST become educated about it.  Because we hide from what we don't want to acknowledge, but hiding doesn't make it not real. 

I have a lot more to say, particularly regarding common methods of aborting (What the WHAT??!!), what the medical handbooks actually say to guide the abortionists, and the church's role in this issue.  Oh, and then we have the statistics of how many abortions occur because of life-and-death situations compared to the ones that are a matter of convenience.  Because we can rally cry all we want about the life of the mother, but the VAST majority of these mothers are healthy and actually pose an added health risk to themselves to undergo the procedure.

And finally, it doesn't matter what we call a baby while it's in utero.  It's really fine if we call it a fetus--or a blob or a mass or a horse or a river--but it's a little human who's alive, and for all intents and purposes, the smallest, developing humans are, in fact, humans, human babies.  We call the smallest, developing anything babies.  So I have more to say.

Hey!  I'm 8 weeks old!

But not tonight. 

Tonight, we should ponder the idea of tearing apart the body of a living human, limb by limb.

...And all the tremendous goodness of heart out there on every side of the issue that could make it stop.

Other answers abound.  We can do better.

Come on, humans, let's rise above.

On God Talking

If you know God, you're graced with several assurances that give a peace others find unfathomable. 
(If you don't know Him, go ahead and jump in!)

Two granddaddies of all these assurances are inextricably linked:

1.  God talks.  To you.
2.  You win.  Because Yahshua won.  So you can start living that way right now.

Well, that's a relief!

Hearing God is something we are created to do.  It is possibly the most natural and inherent aspect of our nature.  The fact that we're having to re-learn, first, that it's even possible and, second, how to do it merely points to a robbery along the way.  We were robbed!  But don't worry, Yahshua came to restore that which was lost, stolen, and given away.  And He did.  And we can hear God talk.  And we win.  Yesssss.

I try not to talk much about my six-year-old son Levi's diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes, because it's one of those things that matters a lot but also doesn't matter at all.  It does matter because it's a battle we fight daily in our personal lives and that we'll continue to fight for others.  We fight spiritually and naturally, and I fully expect him to walk right out of it by the word of the LORD.  Don't freak out about that.  I'm not a pie-in-the-sky, name-it-and-claim it Christian with no grounding.  My relationship with God is pretty firmly grounded, and that grounding is solid enough to elevate my expectations beyond the boundaries of others' experiences and expectations.  So Levi's diagnosis does matter.

However, it doesn't matter in that it doesn't rule our lives, and we don't operate out of the fear that tries to link itself up with the disease.  Because we know God, and He talks, and we win. 

I'm really, really, really, really, reeeeeeeee-heee-heeeeaaallly excited right now, because Yahweh has been talking to me (in itself a thrill, as He's the Creator of the cosmos) about Levi and this sniveling intruder we call diabetes.  I am not foaming-at-the-mouth, obsessively consumed with curing Levi, though he is always on my radar.  We have a lot of important purpose to fulfill and will not be distracted from that.  BUT, when Yahweh talks, I listen.  And I obey.  And because I adore my son and could very easily start foaming at the mouth and becoming obsessed, I'm relieved and blessed that my Father wants to talk to me about it, that it's in His heart too.  Of course it is. 

From the beginning, all the fabulous medical staff told us that Type 1 has nothing to do with what you eat. Type 2 is created by poor diet (and other things) and can often be fought and cured by a better diet, but Type 1, what Levi has, is just a genetic thing that may or may not be triggered by any minor infection that in turn causes the immune system to go into overdrive and attack the pancreas (in a nutshell, making it an autoimmune disease).  So Levi could continue eating whatever he wanted.  We're pretty healthy eaters, so we knew that wasn't an issue.  And I've been explaining to people who ask that this is not a food thing; it can't be changed by eating better.  That's what the experts told us.  That's the boundary of their experience and expectations.

But then Yahweh started talking to me.  He started talking to me about diet, especially regarding Levi, and I was curious and excited.  Because I am forever blessed by our advances in medicine, but it can only go so far.  Western medicine, especially, is incomplete in its focus.

It's not uncommon for me simply to hear His voice, like when he told me I wouldn't be returning to the worship leadership position after Roxie was born.  But here's how hearing God unfolded in this situation for me, and it's continuing to do so.  In short, it's been one of those "coincidental," "that-was-random" situations in repeat. 

First, I became obsessed with healthy soil as I planned our garden this year; I had no catalyst for it beyond just knowing it to be hugely important.  Second, a godly, mighty friend said she knew Type 1 isn't affected by diet but couldn't shake Levi from her spirit as she came upon a couple books about healing through diet and wondered if I'd like to borrow one.  This was especially unexpected: "Yahweh, what's going on with this? You trying to tell me something?"  Third, I clicked on a random FB article posted by someone I hardly know and read it with my hair on end as it talked about all this crazy stuff about healthy soil; it addressed exactly what's been brewing in my spirit.  My jaw dropped when I reached the end that tied all these healthy soil facts and studies to...wait for it...Type 1 diabetes.  The title had not prepared me for that:  "OK, Yahweh, you've definitely got my attention!  Where we headed?"  A few days later, I received the aforementioned book from my friend.  Chapter 1:  Crazy, Mind-Blowing Stuff Including...Healthy Soil, Type 1 Diabetes Reversal, and the Astronomical Importance of Your Gut (Digestive System)/Immune System/What You Feed Them.  A wave of significance washed over me and over me and over me as I devoured every word.  "Thank you, Yahweh; I'm listening and ready."  Last, another godly, mighty friend who had no idea of any of this other stuff approached me and said she knew Type 1 isn't affected by diet but couldn't shake Levi from her spirit as she learned some new stuff about healing the body through diet.  She showed me a video that talked about the incredible healing significance of...the gut and what we feed it.  By the way, guys, the gut...huge.  HUGE.  It directs so much traffic.

I sought none of this out beyond my faithful prayer and warring in the spirit for my son and trying to make food changes that have been in my own spirit for my family.

I guess I'm giving this rundown to show one of the ways God talks.  Sometimes we wait for Him to send a letter in the mail, to spell it out in the clouds, to overwhelm us with a thundering voice.  However, it's often subtler than that.  You get to the place where you start acting in faith on what you've heard.  Some of it will turn out to have just been your own emotions or vain imagination, and that's OK!  You'll learn to differentiate along the way if you keep pursuing Him with pure motives and an open spirit.  He has already accounted for our learning curve and directed our paths accordingly.  It's fool-proof!

So I'll return to where I started:  we, all of us, were created to hear and to know God.  There is none excluded from that possibility.  I'm treading some supernatural ground right now, and it's what differentiates my experience as one who acknowledges my Creator from the experience of another who's just buying the current expectations and information at face value.  But we don't have to settle for status quo in our lives or in our kids' lives or in the world around us.

Because God is talking. 

(to you.)

Because God Himself Identifies with You, Loves You...

Been remembering this since it first popped up on my little daily verse thingie on April 10:

"At the supreme moment of His dying, Jesus so identified Himself with men and the depths of their predicament and agony that no man can now sink so low that God has not gone lower."  -Os Guinness

How encouraging!...even moreso that upon His resurrection and revolutionary defeat of those depths, we can take His hand and by the Spirit walk up, up and out, till we're soaring far above it all by His grace and love and Truth and might. 

I hate cliche religious talk, so I apologize if this all sounds like mere religious banter.  I know it to be so real and earth-shattering that my heart skips a beat to ponder His goodness and BIGNESS, and intimate relatability.

Whether you've always believed, never believed, or did once but got jaded along the way, don't ever let your or someone else's religious activity/expectation/habit drive you away from, or stand in replacement of, the totally explosive, radiant, life-altering, mind-blowing, heart-swelling LIFE that is a relationship with the One who loves you.