Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Fall 2022 PDF
    • SUMMER 2022 ARTICLES
    • 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

0 Comment

Called to Trust

14 Mar 2017
W. Ross Blackburn
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him (Genesis 12:1-4).

Concerning Abram leaving his home, there is much we are not told. How did Abram receive this news? Did he seek to have the Lord change his mind (as he did in Genesis 18)? Or did he go eagerly? How did Sarah respond when, on learning that she would be leaving her home, she asked Abram where they would go and heard, “I don’t know”? What about the rest of Abram’s family? And why did Lot decide to go with him?

On the other hand, Abram is told a great deal. The Lord tells Abram that He would show him the land eventually, presumably at the appropriate time. That He would make him a great nation. That He would bless him, and that Abram himself would be a blessing. The Lord also told Abram that He would protect him—blessing those who blessed him, and cursing those who cursed him. In other words, the Lord promised to care for him and use him to bless others as Abram embarked upon a journey fraught with unknowns.

In some ways, Abram’s lot isn’t much different from ours, for the Lord seldom allows us to see very far ahead. When the prophet Isaiah said “Here am I, send me!” he had no idea where or to whom the Lord would send him. The disciples were not told where Jesus was going when Jesus called to them, “Follow me.”  Mary was told that she would bear a child, the Son of the Most High, but she wasn’t told how all this would work out. What would everyone think? Most especially, Joseph? And yet, the promise for all, whether implied or explicit, was the same: “I am with you.”

All this is worth remembering, particularly for those involved in pro-life work. For a mother carrying an unexpected (and perhaps unwanted) child, the road ahead is seldom clear. Trying to envision life with a child—which may mean giving up a dream or significantly changing course—is scary, particularly if a mother is alone. Anticipating how those most important to her will react is scary. As is figuring out how to raise a child, or how to give him to another. For many, abortion is the least scary road, because it seems to lead to a place that is clear and certain. Whether or not that is true in the end is beside the point—that is often how it appears at the onset of an unwanted pregnancy.

Our plea to a woman who is pregnant and fearful is to trust God. Yes, that includes our being available to help in whatever way possible (recognizing that there are ways in which we won’t be able to help). But in the end, we are asking her to trust God. That is no small matter. And yet, doesn’t God call us to the same? The call to follow Jesus, whether given to the disciple Peter or to you or to me, is a call to trust, often when the road ahead is unclear. And I suspect that the call for a pregnant and fearful woman to trust God, however it is given—friend to friend, counselor to client, mother to daughter, teacher to student—will be given with greater weight and received with greater openness if it is made by one who, like Abram or Sarah, knows something of what it means to trust God personally. Especially when to do so is scary.

 

 

101 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.
About the Author
W. Ross Blackburn

Dr. Ross Blackburn has been ordained for 20 years and has served as Rector for Christ the King for the past 10. He earned a Master of Divinity at Trinity School for Ministry, and a PhD in biblical studies at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland. He and his wife Lauren have been married for 23 years and have five children.
As a member of Anglicans for Life's Board of Directors, Dr. Blackburn is a regular contributor to AFL's Lectionary Life App series, and writes for the Human Life Review as well as  Christian Publications.

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

State Constitutions and Abortion Rights

08 Feb 2023

Minnesota passes one of nation’s most permissive abortion laws

01 Feb 2023

Hit and run violence after Roe: Can't we talk about the morality of abortion?

28 Jan 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 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 Doino Jr. 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.