God, Money, and The Serenity Prayer

I got riled up this morning listening to a podcast from This American Life about an oil company practice called fragging that creates a lot of really terrible waste. As I was thinking about that I began to think about Pepsi's use of fetal cells to develop a new diet drink. Then I thought about Planned Parenthood providing abortions to pimps and sex abusers. I tell you, I was RILED UP!

I was so riled up that I began to think about the amount of emotional energy I was using and how much energy I was willing to use the rest of the day on this issue. I began to ask myself and pray about whether this was something I could not change, thus needing serenity, or something I could change, thus needing courage. As I prayed and pondered, the phrase 'you cannot serve both God and money' formed in my mind.

I began to think about ways that phrase applies to me. I began to ask myself in what ways I serve money and call it serving God. At first I kind of patted myself on the back that I have cut back on my paid work hours to do what I feel God has called me to do. Then I realized that while I have cut back on my paycheck, I haven't really cut back on my spending and this has led to some financial strain on our family that will keep us from being able to give as freely as we would like. For me, serving God rather than money needs to mean budgeting and self discipline as well as working less. This will be a lot more difficult than judging those big bad oil companies, soft drink companies, or abortion providers.

This is what I love about the Serenity Prayer. The Lord uses it to bring me back to what I can change and that is almost always myself.

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I'm thinking about heroes this morning and she is one of mine.

How Will History Judge Us?

It has been a long time since I've "blogged". In part that is because I have allowed myself to become so busy that I have hardly had time to catch my breath, but also it is because what I have been wanting to write about is hard to say. I am going to attempt to write about it now because I don't see many people writing about it in a way that doesn't just hurt me to read it, but I may not be able to say these thoughts in a way that is not hurtful because the topic is painful.

As I watch and read about the Jewish holocaust, I frequently think, 'will we wake up someday to the horror of abortion and feel the same as the Germans at the end of the war?' I think about a famous man's daughter who, when finishing a tour of Aushwitz, wrote in the guest book 'why didn't anyone do anything?' and I wonder if our grandchildren will ask the same questions of us. I mean, I have a Planned Parenthood that I drive by frequently. Do they do abortions in there? If I think it's murder (which I do) and I am aware of the horrifying type of murder that it is, shouldn't I be more active in my fight against them or at least find out if they are killing babies there? Will I be able to stand before my grandchildren and say 'we didn't know what was going on in there'?

When I think this, I am always very aware of how offensive this comparision can be to the Jews. However, if anyone can watch "the silent scream" or see other pictures or videos of abortion (see youtube videos if you want to. I won't post them here because they are so disturbing that I can't stand to see them again myself) and not think that is a horrific thing to do to a human being, I don't understand their thinking. And in America alone, we have done that to 50 million babies since it became legal in 1973. That doesn't even take into account the slaughter we have paid for in other nations or the permission other nations felt from our leadership in this area and the babies that were killed because of that.

History can be a harsh judge. How will future generations look back on how we handled this crisis of conscience in America? Maybe 30 years ago we could say we didn't know but now we do. May we not look away. May we not turn our backs on them but may we, as a nation, turn from this tragic practice and value human life.

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important." Martin Luther King, Jr.
- A pretty good answer to those who say you can't legislate morality.