President Message: Working to Defend Life
Sometimes the smallest courtesies can make the biggest difference

I often have several books that I am in the process of reading: sometimes a fiction along with nonfiction. All are usually given to me to read by supporters because of their life messages. Three of the books I have just finished had a parallel message. The importance of each of us taking responsibility to affect change and the importance of our individual actions. Charles Colson in his book, How Shall We Live, asks the question, "How do we redeem a culture?" He answers his own question this way:

"The answer is simple: from the inside out. From the individual to the family to the community, and then outward in ever widening ripples."

Colson asks us to start with our own development. Do we have a strong foundation? What are our life choices? What example are we to others? Are we willing to take our message and principles outside of our family, our friends and supporters? Colson sees a duty in going beyond those who agree with us "to cultivating" those who are the "unconverted."

Dean Koontz is a prolific author of popular fiction. In his novel From the Corner of His Eye, he expresses in a very different way some of the same thoughts expressed by Colson. Koontz emphasizes the importance of each day in our lives. He asks us to think about how we use each day; how we treat others in our interactions during each day; how what we do and say each day affect the lives of those we meet. He refers to each day as "this momentous day."

Each day we make so many choices and have so many opportunities to make a difference in many lives. We can be kind, generous and uplifting in our actions with those we meet and with whom we work. Or we can be thoughtless, critical and hateful. Both types of behavior reap results. Koontz writes, "...kindness is passed on and grows each time it's passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred ... can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will."

Philip Yancey in Soul Survivors relates how a variety of people have touched and changed his life. One is the author and preacher Frederick Buechner. Buechner emphasizes how God speaks to us in the ordinary every day events of our lives. He calls upon us to:

"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste and smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."

Each of us can spread the truth about our life issues. How, when and to whom we speak will make a great difference; a difference not only today and tomorrow but in the future. We can speak in kindness, in an informed way or we can lash out in frustration, anger and self-righteousness. Because of the horror we see and experience in abortion, our feelings of despair, discouragement and fruitlessness are sometimes understandable. But are they productive? Will these actions change the culture? Will they change the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens? Do they advance the cause of Life?

Let us work together spreading the message of life in ways that recognize the dignity of all those created in the image of God. May our actions and words inspire others to do better and become better. May we not spread hatred and bitterness. May we not tear others down to advance ourselves. May ours be the message of optimism and hope for a bright future for all members of our human family, but especially for the most innocent, the babies in the womb. May our actions and words be effective ripples of truth throughout our culture. May each day be a "momentous day" as together we work to defend Life.