If you’re like most Americans today, you’re hunkered down in your home. Perhaps your children are home because schools are closed. Maybe you’re working from a laptop in your bedroom, while trying to figure out how to safely get provisions to elderly family members or neighbors.
Why do all this? The power is still on. Gas prices are cheap. There’s no hurricane or snowstorm physically preventing us from milling around town.
We quarantine because life is valuable. We self-isolate because life is precious. We spare no expense and risk our thriving economy because there is nothing more fundamentally important than protecting life.
Younger people reach out to help older. Families cancel plans they’ve had on the calendar for months to help “flatten the curve.” Sports seasons, school programs, and public entertainment as we know it, all suspended until further notice. I can’t help but think of what we’re willing to sacrifice for this cause of life. We’re willing to give up our schedules, our activities, our freedom . . . so that others may live.
What a pro-life statement we’re making as a nation””as a world.
Earlier this year actress Michelle Williams attributed career success to her abortion rights. Last month we watched a teen girl broadcast her sheer glee over her trip to Planned Parenthood to end the life of her child. But today our nation watches carefully as the global death toll rises. We voluntarily lay down our plans, our temporary chance at career success, and our “rights” so that we’re not contributing to that number.
Inherently, we know to value life. We instinctively reject the lie of euthanasia that says the elderly are a drain on society. Instead, we take them soup and toilet paper.
We reject the lie that says only the healthy and well-resourced deserve to survive. Instead, we make voluntary choices to protect and aid the weak.
As a result, I wonder what long-term impact this pandemic will have on our culture. Will people, even six months from now, remember how much they were willing to sacrifice for the cause of life? Will a greater appreciation for life generate from a global scare that threatens it?
As those committed to the cause of promoting not just life, but abundant life, this unique time in our history could be a turning point. We should pray for revival. Pray that””when allowed to re-open their doors””our churches will be filled and people who might now be awakened to the vapor-like shortness of earthly existence and find peace in the Heavenly Father who offers them eternal life.
We should also pray for our leaders. Pray for them to have wisdom as they attempt to navigate this crisis. Pray also for God to change hearts and open the eyes of leaders who’ve previously refused to take a stand for life.
Finally, we can also pray that God will use this unique moment in time to soften hearts and re-affirm the tremendous value of human life . . . to everyone.