Life Matters

If a puppy was born with a badly deformed heart, so it was in pain and distress, if it needed a long series of major operations to have even a chance of growing up, most people would sadly take it to the vet to be painlessly put down, I suspect. It would be seen as a mercy.

I have known two babies born with badly deformed hearts. Both suffered pain and distress and went through a long series of major operations, without a great chance of success. So far, both have made it through: they are battlers. In their short lives they have known far more than their fair share of suffering, but they have also known much joy and love.

Should they have been put down at birth, or even before? I suspect most of us would strongly feel they should be given their chance at life, although some high-profile figures might disagree. Somehow life is important and its quality depends on more than just lack of pain and life's significance lies in more than just its length.

Good Friday is a day when Christians remember the suffering and death of Jesus, we believe for the sake of the world, so that all who put their trust in him may have fullness of life, forever.

I think this has relevance to the suffering that goes on in the world; although no way would I claim a complete answer to this venerable question (recently brought up by Stephen Fry and treated by the media as if it were a new thought).

Why do we live in a world where children are born with deformed hearts? I don't know, but I do believe that their lives matter, and that surrounding them with all the love we can matters, and that their parents are heroes who should be celebrated.

Why do we live in such a world? One answer is that God is either incompetent (or at least not omnipotent) or evil. This is slack logic: these may be two options, but they are not the only two. One other that strikes me is that any alternative may be worse.

Why did the parents of these babies allow them to go through such distress? Because they believed that their lives mattered, and they did whatever they could to allow their child every chance to experience life and love and joy. They could have wiped the slate clean and started again, but they chose not to. That individual baby mattered.

Our lives matter to God: that we find love and joy and meaning is, I believe, his priority. Rather than wiping the slate of the world clean, he gave his son to live with us and to die for us, so that we might have every chance to find that love, joy and fulfilment. Every loving parent knows that there is a price to be paid for their love; sometimes that price is hard to bear. God, through Jesus, paid the highest price, because he loves us and because our lives matter to him.

There may be all sorts of other reasons for the suffering in this world. I don't know, I am not God. But I do know that faith is about trust.

I trust that God is good and loving, and that life is in him. And life matters.

Stand With The Others

As you might have gathered from my last post, an anti-gay petition that was presented - and widely signed - at the church I attend really wound me up. This was for all sorts of reasons, but one key issue is that Christians should not - must not - take part in bullying those who are different and who are vulnerable.

In a few weeks' time we are planning to go and see Dutch symphonic rockers Delain playing in Birmingham, which I am greatly looking forward to: it should be a marvellous show. Delain's latest album is due to be released in June and is called We Are The Others - a title inspired by the death of a British girl, Sophie Lancaster:

The album's title track is an anthem for outsiders, with the lyrics being inspired by the hate crime against British girl, Sophie Lancaster in 2007. Sophie and her boyfriend were beaten comatose by a gang of youths, simply because of their goth look. She later died from her injuries (more info at http://sophielancasterfoundation.com) and the tragedy sent shock waves around the world. Charlotte states "Sophie's story hit close to home for us, being part of a subculture ourselves, but it's in no way an individual case. People are discriminated against all the time, to the point of violence, based on their cultural or ethnic background. 'We Are The Others' is our own 'outsiders anthem' for everybody who, deliberately or not, diverts from the norm. Whether by looking different, acting different, or choosing a different path in life than is expected from you."

I am writing this on Good Friday, a time when we remember the cruel death of a man who really was different, and who allowed himself to be truly vulnerable. The religious and civil authorities of his day crucified Jesus, whilst most of those who claimed to follow him were conspicuous by their absence - well, the male ones anyway. Yet God was on Jesus' side and proved it by raising him from death on the following Sunday.

Whatever institutional religious groups may say, those who genuinely want to follow Jesus need to find ways of standing with 'the others', with the bullied and scorned outsiders. The great thing about Jesus (one of the great things) was that he always dealt with people as individuals, not as labels. As Paul, the great letter-writing follower of Jesus, put it:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

In modern parlance: amongst Jesus' true followers there is neither black nor white, neither gay nor straight, nor is there goth, prep, emo and chav. Jesus died for each one of us, and rose again to lead us into new life. Outside Jesus' true followers these labels also have no meaning: Jesus died and rose for them also, each and every one - whatever their lifestyle or dress-sense, Jesus died for them.

It is time for the real Church, the true body of Jesus' followers, to make a stand. Stand with 'the others', stand alongside Jesus.