Untangling the thoughts

I had a long and difficult discussion today, and then I came home and did all that post-situation thinking. You know the kind--when you're unhurried and unpressured and you can think long enough to say clearly what you mean. I think it's why I enjoy writing so much. I'm so much better at it than speaking.

I don't think that people understand that neutrality is a very difficult position to take and hold to. It would be so much easier, simpler to cave in and choose a side and join in all the turmoil and angst that everyone else experiences over wars and elections that really don't make a bit of difference in the end. The labels are so quick to fly: coward, pacifist, unthankful, taking but not giving back, stupid, ignorant, lazy, uninformed, a dreamer. The list goes on. And that's okay. Their opinions make no difference in what I have to hold on to because it is at the core of my values. I respect the right of everyone to hold to their opinion. I don't believe than any of us ever have a justification for forcing our opinion on another. And I feel strongly that it's important to have an informed opinion.

When feelings get in the way, however, it's harder to listen. But if people would just listen, even if they didn't agree they might just understand. And that's what makes differing opinions easier to accept.

I came home and read Annie's blog and the quote about respect for life made everything click, validated so many of the things I know I have to hold to. We live in an age where life is cheap to so many people. I expect Rome was not much different, if one considers the people's lust for blood at sporting events. Not to mention the Crusades, the Inquisition, etc., etc. Now we have kids who kill people every day--onscreen but I think the effect is the same. If not worse. It removes the human element that comes after we lose someone we love. When it's onscreen it's easy to forget that in real life there are beating hearts stilled, ideas and thoughts stopped, and widows and orphans, and mothers with one less child. It doesn't matter which life is stopped, the effect is the same. Someone is gone.

But the lack of respect doesn't just come with the termination of life that's already in existence. It also comes with a lack of respect for what starts it. Sex is such a game these days. Teens treat it like a plaything. No one seems to bring up the fact anymore that sex has a purpose. That purpose is to create life. It's like eating. Eating's purpose is to nourish the body, and when we lose sight of that fact and start using it for other purposes, it begins to harm us. Does that mean it is wrong to enjoy eating? Absolutely not. It's wrong to lose sight of its purpose. And, because I believe in a Creator, I also feel it's His right to decide what is an acceptable use of those powers and what is not. He gave us the gift and the guidelines.

When we lose sight of the precious fact that we can pass on life through engaging in what should be a deep, emotional bond with another human being, and start using those reproductive powers as a plaything for our enjoyment only, we're in trouble. The value of life is diminished right there at its source. And it's the use of it without consideration of the consequences that leads to further killing....

I happen to believe that there is a purpose for this earth, and that the purpose was for it to be inhabited. Not with killing machines, but with people who love life and respect it. Whenever I start to wonder if I could perhaps be mistaken in where I go for spiritual nourishment, I come back to the fact that I am among people who treasure life enough to take an unfavorable position. In the face of imprisonment, even death. I feel for mothers who lose their sons in the gory business of war, but it wasn't anyone who belongs to my faith who took that life. In whatever land they were born into, or wherever they happen to be transplanted, they value life above death, God's law above man's, and look forward to that time when the earth will be different. But not at the hands of mere humans. It's not their job to bring those changes about. We patiently wait for the true solution to every problem that faces mankind, and until then, the rule of thumb is seek peace and pursue it.

I really don't care if it's a popular stand or not. I don't care if it's hard sometimes to face the taunts and ridicule. The peace of mind and heart--there's nothing worth trading it for.

I'm not sure it's any clearer now than when I was speaking it, but it's out there now instead of churning in my head, and I think I'll be able to relax and think about something else.