Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Winter 2023 pdf
    • NEWSworthy: What’s Happening and What It Means to You
    • Blog
    • INSISTING ON LIFE
    • Pastoral Reflections
    • About Us
    • HLF In The News
    • LIBERTY TO DO WHAT? Hadley Arkes and Rusty Reno join George McKenna June 1, 2022 in New York
  • DINNER
    • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER 2022
    • HOST COMMITTEE Great Defender of Life Dinner 2022
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 Dinner Ticket
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 STUDENT or PREGNANCY CENTER STAFF Ticket
    • DINNER JOURNAL ADVERTISING 2022
  • ARCHIVE
    • Archive Spotlight
    • ISSUES IN HTML FORMAT
  • LEGACY
    • Planned Giving: Wills, Trusts, and Gifts of Stock
  • SHOP
    • Cart

A Pastor's Reflections

Editor’s Note: “A Pastor’s Reflections” is a new feature on the Human Life Review’s website. Each week we will post a reflection by Rev. Ross Blackburn, who serves as the Rector of Christ the King, an Anglican Church in Boone, North Carolina. These have been adapted from a series of reflections Rev. Blackburn did over a number of years for Anglicans for Life’s Lectionary Life App, a resource used by fellow clergymen looking to incorporate pro-life themes in their homilies and sermons. Rev. Blackburn is also an adjunct professor at Trinity School for Ministry and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary (Charlotte), and a board member of Anglicans for Life. He is married with five children.
0 Comment

Prayer and Perseverance

06 Nov 2015
W. Ross Blackburn
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted (Habakkuk 1:2-4).

Of all that we might learn from Habakkuk, let me mention two things. First, in the midst of the corruption and injustice of his own nation, Habakkuk prays. Abortion is so removed, so hidden, in the places it is carried out and in the language we use to refer to it, that it is easy for abortion to become an “issue.” Habakkuk sees evil, and prays like many in the Bible—heartfelt and urgent and loud. Look through the Psalms, or hear the prayer of the prophet Jeremiah: “O that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people” (Jeremiah 9:1). But we don’t weep. Most of us would rather hold a principled, informed stand on issues of life. Prophets weep.

Secondly, Habakkuk never gets the answer to his question. This is not unusual. “How long?” is a painful question that pervades the Scriptures (see, e.g., Psalm 13, 35, 79; Job). But Habakkuk does not lose heart. Although he hears that the Lord will bring judgment, he trusts that the Lord will once again be the savior of His people. How long? He is not told. Pro-life work can feel that way—hours and days and weeks and years, and yet death persists, and little progress seems to be being made. How long will it be this way? We are not told.

As always, the righteous shall live by his faith (Hab. 2:4).

Feature Main Page
A Pastor’s Refelctions

 

135 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.

Social Share

  • google-share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments will not be posted until approved by a moderator in an effort to prevent spam and off-topic responses.

*
*

captcha *

Get the Human Life Review

subscribe to HLR

Recent Posts

Wyoming Bans Abortion Pills

22 Mar 2023

Legal Issues on Chemical Abortions

13 Mar 2023

HHS weighs declaring access to abortion a "public health emergency’

08 Mar 2023

CURRENT ISSUE

Anne Conlon Anne Hendershott B G Carter Brian Caulfield Christopher White Clarke Forsythe Colleen O’Hara Connie Marshner David Mills David Poecking David Quinn Diane Moriarty Dr. Donald DeMarco Edward Mechmann Edward Short Ellen Wilson Fielding Fr. Gerald E. Murray George McKenna Helen Alvaré Jane Sarah Jason Morgan Joe Bissonnette John Grondelski Kathryn Jean Lopez Kristan Hawkins Laura Echevarria Madeline Fry Schultz Maria McFadden Maffucci Mary Meehan Mary Rose Somarriba Meaghan Bond Nat Hentoff Nicholas Frankovich Patrick J. Flood Peter Pavia Rev. George G. Brooks Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth Stephen Vincent Tara Jernigan Ursula Hennessey Victor Lee Austin Vincenzina Santoro W. Ross Blackburn Wesley J. Smith William Murchison

Pages

  • Issues
  • Human Life Foundation Blog
  • About Us
  • Free Trial Issue
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Planned Giving
  • TOPICS
  • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER

Follow Us On Twitter

Tweets by @HumanLifeReview

Find Us On Facebook

Human Life Review/Foundation

Search our Website

Contact Information

The Human Life Foundation, Inc.
The Human Life Review
271 Madison Avenue, Room 1005
New York, New York 10016
(212) 685-5210

Copyright (c) The Human Life Foundation.