Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked (Ps 82:3-4).
God raises up leaders to take on causes that are much greater than themselves.
However, these causes are often first birthed as a result of a personal crisis or conviction; then this leads to a larger cause. Not until you are moved with deep conviction are you able to stand against the tide in opposition to a position.
Last year Markai Durham, a girl featured on MTV’s 16 and Pregnant with her boyfriend James, found herself pregnant again. She explored her options, talked with her mother and best friend, and discussed with her boyfriend their financial situation and the daughter they already had. Then she made the choice they all said only she could make. But the pain seeped through.
Markai’s voice broke when she called the abortion business to ask for information: "Afterwards, do you know, like, how I’ll be or how I’ll feel?" After the abortion, when her boyfriend called her baby a "thing," she lashed out: "You would never feel my pain. You weren’t the one in the surgery room. I was there." Markai pointed to their curly-haired baby, "A ‘thing’ can turn out like that. . . . ‘Nothing but a bunch of cells’ can be her."
Experiencing the pain of abortion first hand changed Markai’s perspective. Her response to her boyfriend shows the depth of pain she felt as she lashed out against his insensitive description of the aborted child.
Markai like Martin Luther King had a personal conviction. An inner burning, a deep sense of the subject at hand. Markai felt the deep pain of abortion Luther’s was racial discrimination. Luther sought to change this through preaching and nonviolent demonstrations. It wasn’t long before this became the conviction of others and it became a movement larger than any one person. A recent Pew Research report shows support for abortions decreasing. A greater number of Americans are taking a stand against this shedding of innocent blood.
William Wilberforce was a political statesman in England. He came to Christ when he was twenty-eight years old. He began to have personal convictions about slavery in England and he committed his life to the goal of destroying slavery. He finally achieved his goal after fifty years of work. His work also resulted in sixty-four world changing initiatives before he died.
William Wallace was burdened about the persecution his country received from the wicked English king named Edward the Longshanks. Born in 1272, Wallace grew up under the persecution from the wicked king. When he was older, he led a rebellion against England that resulted in the freedom for the nation of Scotland. The popular movie, Braveheart, was the story of William Wallace.
Norma Leah McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe V Wade fame, has become a strong advocate for the pro-life movement. In the 1980s, McCorvey asserted that she had been the "pawn" of two young and ambitious lawyers (Weddington and Coffee) who were looking for a plaintiff with whom they could challenge the Texas state law prohibiting abortion.
Today she is a confirmed Catholic Christian and a strong advocate for Operation Rescue’s campaign to make abortion illegal.
You too can make a difference in the life of one person, by speaking up for those who can not speak up for themselves. Join the movement, make a difference, defend the defenseless, take up the cause of the rights of the poor and oppressed. Be a Luther, a Wilberforce, a Wallace, a Markai Durham, or a Norma Leah McCorvey.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King, Jr.
