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Living conviction
Years ago, there was a big battle in our city over a moral issue, and I was getting rough treatment from groups that wanted to expand opportunities for unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, and lawless idolatry. I don’t think they were pushing for orgies, but the rest of Peter’s list was their desire.
I attacked no one. I spoke against no one, nor did I tell anyone else what to do. I just spoke truth that the results of this new law would not be positive for the community. As a result, I was vilified.
I rested in the Lord and didn’t worry over it much, but it still weighed on me. My mentor at the time was Neil Ashcraft, and he said something that lightened the load. Speaking on 1 Peter 4:4, Dr. Ashcraft said this to me, “The whole reason they feel the need to slander you is that they are scared. And the reason they are scared is that you are a living conviction who won’t go away.”
Why do your old drinking buddies make fun of you, even though you still love them? Why do the people at school call you “intolerant” even though such isn’t true? Because you are a living conviction that won’t go away.
Conviction of life
Speaking of not going away, Daniel Darling wrote a great article about the enduring strength of the pro-life movement:
Pro-choice advocates understand that abortion rights are threatened in America. This would have come as a surprise to almost anyone who was around for the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision nearly 50 years ago. When Justice Harry Blackmun, joined by six of his colleagues on the Supreme Court, invented a right to abortion in January of 1973, few observers predicted that this decision would launch one of America’s most durable socio-political movements. However, nearly half a century later, the pro-life movement, led mostly by women, is an enduring cultural force. They’ve shown up in the rain, the snow, the sleet. They’ve shown up in neighborhoods where women are in crisis. They’ve shown up in the halls of Congress and state legislatures. They’ve shown up in churches and youth groups. Mocked and maligned by the mainstream press, mistreated by the denizens of popular culture, made the object of late-night comics, pro-lifers have refused to go away. And now, it seems as if the strategy of unflinching conviction and unwavering compassion is paying off.
– Daniel Darling, “We Won’t Go Away,” 21 October, 2021.
God bless,
Wayne