I marched today. No, it wasn’t in a band.
This afternoon, the 2015 March for Life Chicago took place at the Federal Plaza. There had to have been over 2,000 people, all crowded cheerfully and passionately together, yellow balloons stamped “LIFE” in black. Signs, posters, and shouts of “Stand for life!” punctuated the concrete jungle as speakers kicked off the march in support of choosing life for babies and standing up for women struggling with guilt from past abortion experiences.
The sky was crisp, sunny, and welcoming as we strode down Randolph. Police blocked off traffic as my friends and I chirped happily and raised our signs high.
Just as we were nearing the end, exclamations and police on the left side of the street caught my attention. It was a group of equally passionate, college-aged women holding up signs and shouting “Choice!” They were taking potshots and disparaging our march, stating that we didn’t care about women and to “get our laws out of their bodies” or something like that.
It’s easy to march for causes. It’s simple to get on the social-justice hype train and cruise along thinking you’re going to save the world and stop abortion and win political points. Sometimes, though, we lose sight of the most important thing involved with social justice:
The people, and their need for a Savior.
You see, the Gospel bears the fruit of social justice down the line, but social justice in itself is not the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10) through his death and resurrection. He has demonstrates God’s love for us by dying while we were still in our sin (Romans 5:8). In a radical plot twist, God loves those blind women supporting the murder of children just as much as the unborn, because he sent his Son to save them too.
Marching isn’t the solution; introducing people to Jesus is the solution. Pray for the lost, love them, tell them what God has done. Despite my stance in the march today, and despite my support of life for children, I know that the only true solution to the depravity of mankind is the saving grace of God himself. Our actions and good intentions must be rooted in and motivated in Christ. Without Christ as the central cornerstone to our lives, everything we do ends up being a feel-good pat on the back that is selfishly sustained.
What are your “causes”? Praying about why I do what I do is important; is it because of Christ, peer pressure, popular demand?
If we truly live and preach Christ crucified, a heart for social justice will come marching right out of our chest cavities, right before our very eyes.
