Single Lilly's important piece ("Teenage Abortion: Why It's Not So Bad") helps explain why societies support abortion and why friends and family either "gently encourage" or forcibly push women into abortion.
Her closing paragraph reads "They [women who choose abortion], very kindly-and potentially at great risk to their lives-make what could be a problem for us all simply vanish. Personally, I don't particularly enjoy the sight of unhappy, malnourished children". Lilly clearly expresses a chilling vision of human relationships we are all tempted to indulge: "I don't care if you murder others or damage yourself, as long as those lethal actions keep me from having to deal with your problems." What are these "problems?" They are weak human beings-the young, the old, the sick, the disabled, the poor, even the depressed-who might bother us with their troubles or demands.
Consider this parable. Once upon a time a man saw a vision of hell. In it he saw a beautiful banquet table loaded with food. The guests sitting around the table had very long forearms, however, so that none of them could feed themselves. There were shouts, anger, and cursing as everyone tried to spoon up the delicious food only to find they could get it nowhere near their mouths. Then the man saw a second vision, this one of heaven. In heaven he saw the same banquet table and guests similarly deformed. In heaven, however, everyone took the food in their hands and carefully fed their neighbors until all were satisfied.
We can selfishly focus on our own needs while resenting the needs and demands of others; in doing so we create hell on earth. In the 1930's the United States suffered a great economic collapse which became known as the Great Depression. Several decades later a man named Studs Terkel interviewed hundreds of people who had lived through that time. He compiled his interviews into a fascinating book entitled "Hard Times". Terkel found that some people looked back upon those years with nostalgia saying things like, "It was so wonderful, everyone pulled together and helped each other through." Others looked back with horror, saying how awful it was and how people selfishly grabbed everything that they could get with no consideration of others. The challenge of the situation created opportunities for individuals and communities to grow in selfishness or to grow in love. Heaven or Hell.
Swaziland faces a similar challenge right now, and the same choice lies before all of us. When confronted with the needs of the weak and needy, are we going to wish that they would simply vanish, or hope that other people will do us a favor and make them vanish? When our family members, friends, and neighbors come to us with their needs, will our response show that we care and will do what we can to help them? I know a gogo who, several years back, was barely surviving. She took in, fed, and cared for a child who had fled his homestead because of an abusive second wife who didn't want to share food with him. The gogo and her grandson showed love because they believed that Jesus was giving them an opportunity in this boy to show love to God himself. Heaven or Hell--which one will we create here?
I hope that Single Lilly discovers the happy surprise that God fills the universe and our everyday actions with meaning and eternal significance, that Christ is present in the needs of others, and that in the adventure of love no one's life need be "dolorously boring".
