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I believe the root of all killings is the degradation of life in general.
We have told our children that “Bang!” We just landed here, or we descended from apes. Or we are just here to enjoy life to its fullest, and “the one with most toys, when they die, wins!”
We have said because the circumstances or timing of a pregnancy is not “perfect”, it is okay to just terminate the life of the fetus. However, when we did perfectly plan that same pregnancy, we don’t call it a fetus, we host a gender reveal party and give the baby a name and celebrate it, even when it is has been in the womb for less than four months.
We decide if you have a terminal illness it is “okay” to accelerate your passing by taking drugs to end your life as if someone made us the givers and takers of life.
We elevate misbehaving athletes, movie stars and musicians in our society and fall at their knees screaming at sporting events, sidewalk sitings and concerts as if they are gods. While we criticize law enforcement, educators and faith leaders.
We glorify those who someone else has declared beautiful because their skin, body, and hair are “perfect” and ostracize those with less than perfect bodies due to age, disease, or birth defects.
We declare some people worth saving and plead for life-saving organ donations, blood transfusions, and new cures to be discovered. We start “Go Fund Me” pages to cover the costs of these expensive treatments at the same time we don’t seem to notice that our health care system begins refusing many basic types of care when you reach a certain age, deeming you no longer valuable enough to save.
We go to great lengths to provide special education programs for children with certain types of disabilities because “it is not their fault” and we want to improve the quality of their lives. While at the same time, we have a broken foster care system and educational services for the children of poor and broken families. Is it “their fault” they were born into these situations?
My point it is–we live in a fallen world which makes poor and selfish decisions. We continue as a society to push our belief in a creator away, scorning those who do believe in God, while choosing to worship the created instead.
We no longer understand or teach that we are created out of love, with a greater purpose than just our mere existence. We no longer believe, despite all the “bad” in our lives, we are loved so much our creator sacrificed his own perfect life for us.
When life does not go as we want, when people disappoint, when we disagree with someone’s political or religious views, and when we have financial, emotional and physical loss–we must choose life.
When someone’s entrance and exit from this earth is less than “perfect”, we must choose life. We need to let the creator of our days be the one who numbers our days.
We must change the ways we speak and joke, the ways we financially support death and division, and the ways in which we fail to share life and hope.
I believe killings happen not because of the availability of the weapon of choice or mental illness (both obviously play a role), but because somehow we have raised people to believe the lie that ending a life was ever their choice to make.
Let’s change our society and stop sending mixed messages.
Instead, let us send messages of hope by valuing life in our daily choices,
because everyone is wished for.