Doors

Once, when I was a little kid, my mom took me to the public library. I had to run inside and return a book, so she waited in the car. When I approached the automatic door, the door did not open. I'm not sure if I didn't weigh enough, wasn't tall enough, or just wasn't in the exact right spot, but I stood on that mat and nothing happened. I jumped up and down, hoping to get it to work, and it finally did.

This story popped into my head this morning as I was meditating on all of the opportunities God has blessed me with. I can't speak for everyone, but I have a feeling I'm not alone in picking one door I want Him to open and sticking to it.  Left and right, God in His infinite wisdom is swinging doors open to all sorts of new things that I would love if I tried, but none of them are the door I have in mind. So I stay there, on the mat in front of the door I have chosen, and I do whatever it takes to get it open. I jump, I flail, I bargain, and I pout. To no avail.

I think what I forget is that I am exactly like my little kid self. If I had had my mother with me at that entrance, the door would've swung open instantly, permitting me to go inside. But she wasn't. Trying to embark on something new alone is the exact opposite of what the Lord wants for us. For a long time, I never considered that image of God opening doors as the beginning of something, or, rather, for what it is: an invitation. I just assumed that image stopped there. That God nonchalantly strolls down this long hallway that looks like dressing rooms and picks and chooses doors, and my job is to chase Him and try out doors if I so desire. But the more I reflect on it, the more it seems that God is a gentleman, holding the correct door open for me and waiting for me to get there so that he can join me inside and continue guiding me after I'm committed.

The Meaning of Freedom

I was blessed to spend five days at the end of January on a trip to Washington, D.C.

On the Friday I was there, I marched for Life.

On the Saturday, I went to the museums and the memorials in the city.

As I was looking at all of these amazing people, men and women, who gave their lives to creating this country, I couldn't help but wonder if they'd be disappointed with it today.  These people, whom we as a country honor in memorials and statues and museums dedicated their entire lives to a fight for freedom. But that's not really what we're living.  I like to believe that the country and the freedom that they envisioned was one of possibility and dreaming. They wanted the people of this fantastic nation to be able to be free to do whatever they could possibly imagine; to reach their highest potential. But what we've become is the opposite. Largely, we are treating liberty as freedom from responsibility. We are using the freedom to choose to live our lives as we please as an excuse to eat whatever we want, complain about whatever we want, and have sex without consequences. There is no liberty, nor justice, in the killing of an unborn child. When our forefathers spoke of "Liberty and justice for all" there was no footnote that said "Unless they aren't born" or "Unless they were conceived in rape".  The right to protest was meant to change things for the better - not to give women the right to murder their own children within their own wombs completely free of any (legal) remorse or recoil. 

Free will has become something that makes people feel that they are somehow entitled to treat one another however they please without recompense. Free will isn't meant to allow us to be forgiven of our mistakes, it is meant to give us the brain power and will power to stand up and correct them.  We have to own up to the things we are doing wrong, as individuals and as a functioning nation. The minute we start looking out for only ourselves is the moment when we as a country will unravel.

We should fight for what we believe in. We should stand up for things and peacefully protest. But we need to do it for what it right. Can we really afford to have on our consciences living in a country where our leader says:

"Can we honestly say that we're doing enough to keep our children - all of them - safe from harm? I've been reflecting on this the past few days and if we're honest with ourselves, the answer is no.  . . . If there’s even one step we can take to save a child, then surely we have an obligation to try. . . Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?”*

but does nothing about the 55 million babies killed in the last 40 years since Roe v. Wade passed, and do nothing about it ourselves?

Please don't misread this as anything less than a total respect and love for this country. The United States is such a beautiful place, and it really is full of possibility. I thank God every day that I live here and have the opportunities that are offered to all of us here, but that doesn't change the fact that I truly believe that being a United States citizen means more than what we're living it out to be.  And the fantastic thing is, because of our liberty, we can change this. We can make it so that every life is protected at every stage.

These are just some starting reflections and musings, but my heart has been shaken, moved, and inspired to be more active in the preservation of life from conception to natural death.

*http://www.npr.org/2012/12/16/167412995/transcript-president-obama-at-sandy-hook-prayer-vigil