Anyone who knows me understands I am an unabashed, unapologetic, unwavering optimist. For proof, just read my column here two weeks ago, where I offered an idea to raise $560 million for pregnancy help organizations in just one week.
Like anyone else though, I can get discouraged at times. But—and ask my wife about this—when discouragement comes, it generally takes only 24 hours for a new optimism to emerge.
For instance, though I’ve been discouraged by recent court rulings and new laws created on a number of issues (and the fact that my daughters can’t even feel comfortable going to the dressing room in one major retail chain store), I see the potential for a third great awakening in our country, a true turnaround in our culture. We could be on the verge of this, regardless of the upcoming election results or the next court ruling.
Here is a fact: God does His greatest work when the odds are against His people.
A second fact: God uses ordinary people to accomplish the mightiest works.
We know the stories. He used Moses, once a baby dumped in a river, to bring the Israelite people from Egypt to the verge of the promised land. He used ruddy little David to conquer Goliath.
He used Peter, a Galilean fisherman, to launch Christianity with 3,000 converts in one day.
And He used Saul of Tarsus, a zealous persecutor of Christianity, to take the good news to the entire known world.
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As America casts its ballots this year, the Christian community and the pro-life community are more than a little concerned. We should be. One candidate is hostile to the pro-life community; supporting more taxpayer funding of abortion, abortion up until birth—you name it. She is Planned Parenthood’s greatest cheerleader. The other candidate is a relatively new convert to the pro-life arena and can’t seem to clearly articulate a consistent pro-life message.
Regardless of who wins the White House, we who hold faith in Jesus Christ and a strong conviction on the sanctity of life best be prepared. Those who bow to abortion-on-demand may soon own the White House and at least one house of Congress (maybe both). If so, we will be buried under new legislative initiatives and court battles for a long time to come.
But, even if Mrs. Clinton does not win, nothing would be over. The left never stops in its quest to crush the voice of the pro-life community. We can’t expect the left to give up, even if life-affirming candidates prevail from the top of the ballot to the bottom.
Discouraging? Yes. But not for long.
As we all know, a culture shifts from the bottom up, not top-down from elected or appointed leaders.
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Therefore, our mission continues to be, “Change the Culture.” Every client or patient who comes in our door is a potential world-changer, because God uses who? Ordinary people. We can’t miss this truth.
He uses us—ordinary people—to impact the lives of other ordinary people. And the seeds are sown to literally turn an entire society back to God.
We can get so focused on what Washington is doing (or not doing), we forget how God works.
We do not yet know what the election returns will tell us Tuesday evening. But those returns do not change the fact that on Wednesday after the election, the mission to reach out and impact our world awaits us once again.
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Every person we see is another opportunity to shift the thinking of our society, to change minds. Not to go Greek Scholar here, but even the word “repent” which Peter used (and Jesus too, by the way) means to “change one’s mind.”
Every day, we change minds. The hearts follow. And when they do, a culture changes.
Elections have an impact and we should all be involved. But ordinary people shift entire societies. Let’s keep reaching out, keep building a new culture.
After all, we’re ordinary people. It’s our calling, and always will be.
Kirk Walden is a senior writer with Pregnancy Help News, an Advancement Specialist with Heartbeat International and author of The Wall. He also blogs at www.KirkWalden.com. For banquet speaking engagements,
