God, help us

From President Obama’s speech to the UN earlier today…

(Pursuit of peace) “That effort must begin with an unshakeable determination that the murder of innocent men, women and children will never be tolerated.”

Yet we murder innocent children to the tune of some one million a year in the US alone.  Since 1973, 45 million children have been aborted in our own country (not to mention the numbers around the world).

When will we stand up for their rights?  When will the human rights so many clamor for include the most vulnerable and defenseless?  The blood of the innocent cries out.

God, help us.

Healthcare Reform – Tell Me Why Not

health_care_reform

… Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), said his party may not even need to put forward a plan.

Why are my friends so vehemently against Obama’s Health Plan without offering any alternatives of their own?  I suppose it’s because they have jobs that provide health insurance for a nominal fee and if they go to the doctor or, heaven forbid, something catastrophic happens they know that they will be covered.

At most companies for which my friends work the withholding for their plans doesn’t amount to much and they feel justified in making a lot of noise ranting and raving for nothing to be done.

Nothing.

But every day more and more people – hard-working people – cannot afford health insurance so they drop their coverage and hope for the best. I am one of those people.  Sometime you have to make a decision between rent and health insurance.  You know what wins?

American history is peppered with beautiful stories of people standing up for beliefs and fighting for their rights – for real change.  But the present protests are against any change.  They are for nothing more than the status quo.

Recently a friend of mine told me his story:  His employer didn’t offer health insurance and he couldn’t afford to purchase a private plan.  He happened to get in an accident on his bike and dislocated his shoulder and had a gash that required stitches on his chin.  Everyone was yelling to call an ambulance, but my friend came to in time to stop them and say, “take me home” because he didn’t have insurance.  He had to “consider his options” before getting treatment.  Eventually he did go to the emergency room and had a physician’s assistant reset his shoulder. (He recently paid off the $3000 bill — this wasn’t even a doctor!)

Everybody’s against “rationing,” but isn’t rationing happening now? Care is rationed to those who can afford it and withheld from those who can’t.

The Declaration of Independence proclaims that we are given (by God) unalterable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  How can you have life without basic healthcare?  By denying healthcare to people in America, for whatever reason, are we not revoking one of those guaranteed rights?

So, please, speak out against ideals you don’t believe in.  But, so much more importantly, put forth ideas of your own.  We need them.  I need them.

Justice, Obama, and the Harlem River

I know there are lots of different people with different views that read this blog. I have my friends from the Church who, by and large, are conservative. I have my music friends who are mostly liberal. I even know some who cherry pick from one side or the other. If you know me, you know that I lean conservative and this is mostly on social issues. I’ve lived in overwhelmingly liberal communities a lot, so I’ve learned to just keep quiet and nod when politics comes up. This is a shame, but I know as soon as I express my support for certain positions that I will not just get a disagreement from some liberal friends, but a moral judgment that could threaten their opinion of me as a person. The same goes for select conservative brethren. If, by some chance, I happen to feel that the Left has some insight on a particular issue (I can’t think of one now:) then I am lambasted as not holding to the straight and narrow.

So it is with this disclaimer that I offer you the following words…

A few months ago I was taking a walk along the Harlem River in Manhattan. If you don’t know the geography of New York City, there are several rivers/bodies of water that meet here: Hudson, Harlem, East, Long Island Sound, and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve been taking walks and spending time praying as I explore the City and this particular day I felt God say “Pray for justice.” Now, there are those that pray for justice all the time and it is burden on their hearts. Let’s just say it’s not one of my regular prayer topics. So I began to pray in the Spirit for justice; justice in the City, in the Nation, and justice in the lives of my friends and family. As I finished, the Lord began to speak to me. He said that the election of Obama as president is a river of justice for African-Americans. Just as the Harlem River cuts through the rocky land, justice cut through the rock of hard hearts that brought oppression to an entire race and is now bringing about righteousness.

You have to believe me when I say I wasn’t really pursuing this revelation. It was if the Lord wanted to reveal it to me for some reason I’m still not aware of. I am just overwhelmed that He would choose to speak to me at all.

Considering my views and the fact I voted for John McCain, I began to ask God how this could be with Obama’s positions, particularly on abortion. What about justice for the millions of unborn babies that never see life? He answered that I, as a human, could not see justice the way He sees it. We tend to only focus on one thing, one issue at the detriment to all the rest. He can bring about His purpose in as many streams as I could imagine and beyond. He showed me that there was justice coming related to abortion and it would be a wide, mighty river (think of the Mississippi). And not just for abortion and racial injustice, but for all the wrongs that require His ability to make them right. The streams of righteousness are flowing strongly through all the Earth.

The thing all of these “rivers of justice” have in common is that they flow to one place: the ocean. Remember that I said that in New York City many rivers/bodies of water flow into the Atlantic? When I saw that they were metaphors for justice, I asked the Lord if the ocean was a place of judgment or mercy. He conveyed that it could be either. The atrocities committed are more than deserving of judgment, but because of Jesus, because of His sacrifice, the rivers flow together into an ocean of mercy. This mercy stretches as far as we can see like the horizon line on the water that just keeps going. The rivers flow into Him – the true ocean of mercy.