by Ashley Haupt | Apr 27, 2013
Have you ever passed a field of spent sunflowers? Their burnt brown heads are all bowed in the same direction, like a class of naughty kindergarteners abashed by their scolding teacher.
They look as though they considered the dust from whence they came, and maybe we all should do that occasionally? I have passed that same field when the stately golden heads were lifted high and proud and petal-full.
But the spent sunflowers are beautiful in their bare humility, like surrendered souls having shed all pretense to self-sufficiency. I’ve held my own head high, too, on a stiff neck and I’ve withered down to brown humility and though painful, one is infinitely better. Because to be brought low is to know the security and stability of the Source rather than wavering on your own skinny stalk.
This is the one I esteem, declares the Lord. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my Word. Isaiah 66:2
Jesus told those heartsick disciples on the road to Emmaus, Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory? (Luke 24:26)
Suffering, it’s everywhere in Scripture, and everywhere around us, and sometimes we’d just rather have our best life now.
God doesn’t seem to view pain the same way we do. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters that God seems to take His most precious saints through some of the roughest, driest valleys (I believe he uses the very British word “troughs” instead).
His thoughts are not our thoughts; His ways are not our ways.
So we bow our heads with the sunflowers, give humble thanks, receive the manna-grace for today. We look forward to the day when all our suffering blows away like dust in the wind.
Do you feel withered and barren today, humbled before others or maybe just before your Maker?
by Ryan Smith | Apr 11, 2013
As a writer knowing I have some degree of influence, no matter how small, I usually try to choose my words judiciously.
Today I am not.
There is an outrage in me that should spread like wildfire not only at what is considered “news” in our mainstream media, but what is silenced for the sake of it. Today I give my voice, no matter how small, to those with the smallest voices who were never given a chance to speak.
You may have heard the story by now – though likely only through social media platforms. Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell is under trial for extreme acts of brutality, murder, and infanticide. Gosnell’s former employees are testifying as to what they were led to do and witness over years in the abortion clinic.
If you want the gory details, Kirsten Powers has written a superb opinion article in USA today with all of the details I am literally too nauseated to type here. Read it. What I can tell you is that Gosnell’s procedures and practices were outside the law, outside of human conscience, and outside the realm of what any being or entity can justify.
Perhaps on a lower strata, yet outrageously concerning, is the lack of attention given to this trial which began on March 18th – nearly one month ago at the time of this writing – and took place over the course of more than ten years.
If you haven’t heard about the trial during your regular television or Internet viewing cycle, you’re not alone. No major news show on any of the top three networks has given a second of air space to the story. Even a quick review of major Internet news outlets finds them void of the massacre. At the time of this writing, Yahoo! News does not have the story in its top 95 stories, or even listed under its general news feed.
So what is listed?
- Hugh Hefner’s 87th Birthday Celebration
- Taylor Swift quits wearing eyeliner
- Top All-Beef Franks
- Cosby Show Cast Now!
…and a story expressing concern over whether or not a violent video game is “too real.” You know what IS too real? The fact that hundreds of children had their spines cut, “heads severed,” and were murdered – even outside of the womb and considered “viable.”
The outrage over the event is warranted. The fact that Planned Parenthood continues to deny and hem-haw around the issue is vile. The reasoning of major news executives in shying away from the story because of its pro-life implications is infuriating. The fact that this scenario may be playing itself out in countless other abortion clinics is frightening. Above all, the idea that these murders happening outside the womb warrant trial, yet inside the womb are simply a day at the office for abortion doctors should bring us to anger and action.
So what can we do about it?
If the mainstream media is afraid of the story because of its pro-life bent, we must use social media to champion it. We all have a voice, no matter how small. Use it.
As a father I weep. As a human I am enraged. As a victim of this charade by the media I am irate. As a Christian, I pray Lord come soon, ask for justice, and pray somehow for the gospel to be made known through this.
Hundreds of children have been silenced. Let us not be so.