Great Are You

So this is it... my first rant in a while. I suppose I've ranted other times, but it's been a while since I blogged and, after a quick survey of some recent posts, no rants have been angry, or frustrated, or whatever I'm feeling right now.
So I went to soulhouse tonight. I don't know if that should be capitalized... I feel like it shouldn't be, and that's completely irrelevant. We worshiped, we sat and listened, and while everyone else worshiped again I drew all over my hand.
G-Ram talked about "I" in what I have dubbed, "The Philosophy/Theology of I". I was most interested at the point when he began to talk about totalitarianism, and the idea of people being told to think the same for the benefit of the state. As he began to talk about how we're made to be individuals, and think differently, I had a thought. Individuality frees us from doctrine. We're not meant to think the same, we're not meant to be clones. Why do we provide "freedom" to those who are oppressed by the totalitarian mindset, but give in to the doctrine that has been elevated by the religious right? It was a rather liberating thought for me, I'm not going to lie. Then he talked about the new giving project...
Bring things in for the Pregnancy Centre. Blah Blah Blah, abortion smells, blah blah, yay babies, let's support these people for having children instead of aborting them. I don't remember what he said exactly. I agree with some of the basics. The words he used... his tone... it rubbed me the wrong way. So I started writing on my hand.
LOVE! ADOPT! CHILD CARE! WHY DO WE DISTANCE OURSELVES?
What is pro life? Whose life do we value? Pregnancy isn't just one new life! It is also a series of lives transformed. Do I love too much to be "pro-life" or do people not understand what life is?
WE DO NOT HOLD THE WHOLE PICTURE.

That capitalized are written on my fingers right now. The rest is written on my palm. I don't pretend to be someone who is fantastic at loving, when I wrote that comment about loving too much it wasn't intended to be self promotion, but an expression of sadness at how I feel the way many people handle abortion lacks love. The last thought is a response to the song that was playing as I wrapped up writing on my hand... Great Are You, by downhere.

"Because I'll never hold the picture of the whole horizon in my view
Because I'll never break the night in two it makes me wonder
Who am I?
Who am I?
Who am I and great are You"

There is such a big picture when it comes to issues like abortion that we rarely stop to consider. We look at it as if it's black and white, but the beauty is in the colour. I am not going to advocate abortion. I think it's sad. I also think that the situations that lead to unplanned pregnancies are sad. I also think that as much as it may upset some, it probably upsets the poor girl/woman who goes through the procedure more. I will not love anyone less for having an abortion. I would think that's when people would need love more. Are we going to stand outside abortion clinics? Or are we going to be inside holding peoples hands, and praying with them, for healing. I don't know. I have no clue. I have never been solid on this issue... it requires so much sensitivity.

I think Shane Claiborne sums it up nicely;
"I must say I am still passionately pro-life. I just have a much more holistic sense of what it means to be for life, knowing that life does not just begin at conception and end at birth, and that if I am going to discourage abortion, I had better be ready to adopt some babies and care for some mothers."