As part of my retreat this weekend, and part of some subsequent personal conversations with friends and associates, the topic of life came up once again. In many political elections, the subject of life is hotly contested, but unlike the concept of death, very few pundits and politicians actually take on the concept of what life really means. Those few who do make sweeping assertions about the biological aspects while ignoring all other facets of what it means to have a life.
Just because a zygote manages to survive the ravages of those who support abortion and enters into the world as a biologically living entity, does that suffice to give it life? I know many people who waste and wear out their lives in things of no eternal consequence, preferring to indulge in things unnecessary to their salvation. The dilemma comes from misunderstanding and misapprehension about the purpose of life. As I will pursue in my next book, Educating the Free, for most people, life is all about getting money.
The events that constitute a real life are not about simply being birthed onto the earth. Do trees and goats really live? They build nothing, they write nothing, and they experience things in a way exigent to our understanding. How much of what we do helps us to really live? I grant you that while money may help us live and the biological components of life are absolutely requisite, they are not the full width and breadth of the matter.
As part of my sojourn in Cedar City this weekend, I stayed with a very fine family. Although not necessarily there to spend time with them, in the waning hours of the evening, finding myself popular with their five children, I took time and interest in their activities. We played with toys, sang songs, and talked about the birds in a book from which they made drawings. One of them even drew something for me, an almost perfect stranger. Some may argue that sitting at home when you could be hobnobbing, socializing, or finding other forms of entertainment may not make much fun, but I have been bereft of the attention of children long enough that I rather enjoyed it. Granted, at the end of the day, I can simply hand them back to their parents and not worry about their care, but they took me into their circle and made me part of their life. For one day at least then this year, I can honestly say that I lived.
Pro-life efforts must be pro-family in order to fulfill the true purpose of life. Life is about more than bandaids and koolaid and brushing your teeth. It's about the little moments in between when we go watch our brother's soccer game and come home to declare victory and say how proud we are of his team. It's about staying up late playing board games and talking with one another. It's about lazy afternoons on the trampoline and crisp fall mornings raking up the leaves. Life is more than biological.
Without a family, I contend we cannot really get a life. Fortunately for my own part I belong to a good family, seeing as I have as yet none of my own, and no prospects in the foreseeable future. When I think back on my parents, they did more than give me biological life. They helped me live- to enjoy life, to make my mark in it, and to take advantage of what there is to offer. By reproducing we fulfill our biological function. By making our own families, we fulfill the measure of our creation. Consider what your family did to help you live and what you plan to do to carry on the tradition or to improve upon those that came before you. Help others to have a life, and in so doing you will find your own.
Just because a zygote manages to survive the ravages of those who support abortion and enters into the world as a biologically living entity, does that suffice to give it life? I know many people who waste and wear out their lives in things of no eternal consequence, preferring to indulge in things unnecessary to their salvation. The dilemma comes from misunderstanding and misapprehension about the purpose of life. As I will pursue in my next book, Educating the Free, for most people, life is all about getting money.
The events that constitute a real life are not about simply being birthed onto the earth. Do trees and goats really live? They build nothing, they write nothing, and they experience things in a way exigent to our understanding. How much of what we do helps us to really live? I grant you that while money may help us live and the biological components of life are absolutely requisite, they are not the full width and breadth of the matter.
As part of my sojourn in Cedar City this weekend, I stayed with a very fine family. Although not necessarily there to spend time with them, in the waning hours of the evening, finding myself popular with their five children, I took time and interest in their activities. We played with toys, sang songs, and talked about the birds in a book from which they made drawings. One of them even drew something for me, an almost perfect stranger. Some may argue that sitting at home when you could be hobnobbing, socializing, or finding other forms of entertainment may not make much fun, but I have been bereft of the attention of children long enough that I rather enjoyed it. Granted, at the end of the day, I can simply hand them back to their parents and not worry about their care, but they took me into their circle and made me part of their life. For one day at least then this year, I can honestly say that I lived.
Pro-life efforts must be pro-family in order to fulfill the true purpose of life. Life is about more than bandaids and koolaid and brushing your teeth. It's about the little moments in between when we go watch our brother's soccer game and come home to declare victory and say how proud we are of his team. It's about staying up late playing board games and talking with one another. It's about lazy afternoons on the trampoline and crisp fall mornings raking up the leaves. Life is more than biological.
Without a family, I contend we cannot really get a life. Fortunately for my own part I belong to a good family, seeing as I have as yet none of my own, and no prospects in the foreseeable future. When I think back on my parents, they did more than give me biological life. They helped me live- to enjoy life, to make my mark in it, and to take advantage of what there is to offer. By reproducing we fulfill our biological function. By making our own families, we fulfill the measure of our creation. Consider what your family did to help you live and what you plan to do to carry on the tradition or to improve upon those that came before you. Help others to have a life, and in so doing you will find your own.
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