BLOGS
Cheer Up! Things Could Be Worse
by Stanley Baldwin, posted Nov. 24, 2008
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There is a lot of depression in the air these days. Not surprising, since many people are experiencing almost a perfect storm.
First, the economy is adversely affecting all of us. Even if we aren't feeling the full brunt of hard times yet, we can see them coming. And many see them already here. With a vengeance!
Second, fall weather is getting gloomy here in the Pacific Northwest, and winter approaches like a harbinger of pain.
Third, we suffer from election hangover. Though the election is past, many are depressed about its outcome and even the winners wonder whether President-Elect Obama can do anything to save us. The somber mood was reflected when one TV talker said, only half facetiously, that this might be the first election in history in which the winner demands a recount.
It is some relief that political ads no longer assault our senses constantly. I knew it was bad when one 2-year-old of my acquaintance asked his mother what she was preparing in the kitchen. When Mom said broccoli, he immediately asked, "Broccoli Obama"? But neither the cessation of the ads nor the comic relief of that two-year-old's response offers much consolation so far as the big picture is concerned.
In addition to the economy, the weather, and political challenges, some face sickness, accidents, troubled personal relationships, addictions, legal issues, natural disasters and more..
Humor often helps people face adversity. The old saw goes: "I felt bad about all my problems, but a friend told me, 'Cheer up; things could be a lot worse.' So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got a lot worse."
As great as humor is, levity can sometimes wound rather than cheer the depressed. "Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on soda, is one who sings songs (or tells jokes) to a heavy heart " (Proverbs25:20).
But if cheery words and songs won't avail, must we simply leave each other to suffer? No, this is a time to "be there" for one another, to be a support to the spirit even when there are no easy answers to the problems.
I was a small child during the great depression. Unemployment was 25% in our country and legions of homeless, jobless citizens lived in the streets and hobo camps. My dad had very little, but he did have a home for which he paid $7 a month rent and a job that earned him 40 cents an hour. He never locked our home because people didn't prey on one another as they do now. And he never turned away a "bum" from the door without giving him something to eat, a morsel of hope for both body and spirit.
We need a return to that kind of personal responsibility toward each other. One of our greatest needs as human beings, in good times or bad, is to feel someone cares whether we live or die. Material abundance means little if one has nobody to care.
Now is a time when people increasingly face once again not only a lack of material necessities but a corresponding drain on their inner resources of strength and hope. Now is a time for us all to become a society for prevention of cruelty to humans. In saving one another from despair, we save ourselves from shabbiness of soul and spirit.
After Abortion posted October 28, 2008 An interview with Julie Johnson, Author: Over Coffee (We Shared Our Secrets)
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Stan: Abortion and the pro-life versus pro-choice movements have been polarizing issues in our culture for a long time now. I know you have been very actively pro-life for years, but this book is not about that issue exactly. What is your theme?
Julie: My theme in Over Coffee (We Shared Our Secrets) is threefold.
1.To demonstrate the devastating after-effects abortion can have in the lives of women who choose that option,
2. To educate and encourage post-abortive women to find help and healing through a Christ-centered post-abortion support group.
3. To educate and encourage non post-abortive women and men to be more understanding toward women and men who made that poor choice and are struggling with the consequences today.
Stan: I've heard contradictory claims about how serious a problem Post-Abortion Stress (PAS) is. Have you any way to know how common it is? Or what type of woman suffers from it?
Julie: Because of the shame associated with abortion, particularly in Christian circles, it's been difficult to pinpoint numbers. However, more and more women are becoming vocal about their experiences with guilt, anger, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, anniversary grief, sexual dysfunction, relationship problems, eating disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, to name but a few.
Pregnancy Resource Centers (formerly known as crisis pregnancy centers) across the nation offer post-abortion recovery groups and are helping thousands of women every year. From their records, we know that women of all ages and backgrounds suffer from post-abortion stress.
Stan: How do women get over PAS? Does time heal the wounds? Do they successfully rationalize and excuse their actions? After all, they did nothing illegal--or even wrong in the eyes of many.
Julie: Time alone does not generally heal the wounds. I've known women who suffered in silence for 25 years before finding help in getting over PAS. And that's where Bible-based post-abortion support groups help most. In the safety of a small group of women, all of whom have "been there," the walls of secrecy come down quickly, and women feel safe to work through their painful emotions.
It's true that abortion is legal in our land. Yet most women would agree that there is something built into our hearts that makes us want to protect a child, particularly our own child.
Stan: In Over Coffee: (We Shared Our Secrets), you weave together the stories of six women who helped each other work though their deep shame and isolation. But should such women be excused? If they feel guilty because they are guilty, wouldn't some pro-lifers say that's a good thing?
Julie: Abortion is a sin, no doubt about that. But as with any sin, there is forgiveness in Christ. Many women have received God's forgiveness but can't seem to forgive themselves. They feel their sin is too great. God does not want His children to despair, and yet that is what is happening in vast numbers to many of our Christian sisters. The Alan Guttmacher Assn., the research arm of Planned Parenthood, reports that 18-20% of the annual abortions in this land are performed on Evangelical Christians. An additional 30% are performed on Roman Catholics. That amounts to a total of approximately 600,000 abortions per year. Multiply that figure by the thirty-five years that abortion has been legal and you have a whole lot of hurting women, many of whom are sitting in the pews of our churches, terrified of being "found out."
Stan: How do you see your message in this book as being consistent with the principles of SPCH? When people are clearly wrong, how can we still be nice to them? Doesn't that blur all distinctions of right and wrong? How can we be soft on women who have aborted without coming across as permissive and compromising?
Julie: Well, we're talking about two groups here: those who continue to promote abortion and those who repent of having had abortions.
Regarding the first group, those who continue to promote abortion, I fall back on the wisdom of my mother who always said you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. (Mom would have been a card-carrying member of SPCH.) Most pro-choice people consider abortion to be women's friend in leveling the playing field, socially as well as in the workplace. These people are sincere in their beliefs. In that sense, we can applaud their desire to make life better for women. However, time has proven them wrong. Abortion has devastated the lives of many women who are coming out of the woodwork to proclaim how harmful abortion is. The "Silent No More" campaign is assembling lists of hundreds of thousands of post-abortive women who are willing to take the issue before the courts in an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The second group is composed of women who repent of having had abortions. If God has forgiven them, why shouldn't we come alongside them and help them forgive themselves? Many of these women acted in ignorance. In years past, before ultrasound was readily available, many believed they were carrying only a blob of tissue. Other women acted under duress, pressured by their parents, boyfriends/husbands to have an abortion. Even those who acted in full knowledge and have now come to regret their action can come before the throne of grace and find forgiveness in Jesus Christ. And if God is for them, how can we be against them?
Stan: To what degree is your book an authentic true-to-life work of fiction, a story that will touch people and come across as real, and to what degree is it contrived to make your point?
I've spent the past 15 years in the pregnancy center ministry--several of those years in the counseling room, talking with hundreds of clients who'd either had abortions or were considering abortion. I also oversaw the post-abortion recovery program and witnessed broken-hearted women, women who could scarcely take their eyes off their shoe tops, receive hope and healing, forgiveness and freedom. While the women in my book are fictional characters, their stories represent authentic true-to-life happenings.