Written by Lisa Ridinger
I suspect that many of you have listened in horror and dismay, as your child shared with you what they were being taught or exposed to in their public school. With the ever increasing depravity that is constantly being hurled at Christians, and our ever increasing marginalization, two things are clear. First, we as God’s people have become paralyzed, and second,
God’s Heart Is Being Broken
Do we care if God’s Heart is being broken?
One of the more discouraging images that plays in my mind, is seeing myself trying to bear up under a cultural torrential downpour of balls seeking to destroy me, my family, our world, and…the Gospel. For every one ball I am able to fend off, there are 20 more that follow in it’s place. These balls mock me. Calling me a “Hater!”, “Bigot!”, “Pro-life you lie, you don’t care if women die!!”, etc…. Balls that threaten to bury me under a tomb of defeat and despair.
Have you ever felt that way?
One of my biggest fears is to imagine myself, bruised and battered, stooping down to pick up one of those balls, and then just…going…home.
Do I care if God’s Heart is broken?
Do you?
Some would justifiably argue that the moral decline of our schools began in the 1960’s as a result of two landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions: Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), where state-sponsored prayer was prohibited in our public schools. While these decisions were disastrous, I would argue that what was even more disastrous was the silence of God’s people. As my friend Jacquie would say, “All you could hear were the crickets, crickets, crickets…”
Do I care if God’s Heart is broken?
Do you?
Although it may appear that I am taking a circuitous route in discussing the issue at hand, comprehensive sex-ed, the fact of the matter is I can offer you a “what to do/what not to do” list when approaching your school, and I will in the future, but this list will be meaningless if we remain paralysed in our chairs, in our schools, in our communities, and in our fear….
Do we care if God’s Heart is broken?
One of my best-loved quotes is by MLK Jr., and is especially sobering, given the persecution and martyrdom of our fellow believers in Christ throughout the world:
“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue…. And you refuse to do so because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer… You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”
Do I care if God’s Heart is broken?
Do you?
