God of All (Even Bathrooms)

I'll admit, this HB2 issue has had me feeling all sorts of emotions and has tempted me towards fear and anger. My very first thought is of my daughter, who will be raised in a world that grows more and more strange to me and less and less... safe. I worried about her safety and her innocence and I have asked God to show me how to protect her body and mind and heart in the face of a world that values the desires of the individual with the voice above the safety of the vulnerable without one. I ache at the thought of my very dear friends who have been raped- will they surrender their rights to a public bathroom in order to try to recover from the living nightmare that they have experienced? I have become angry because I know that this issue goes far beyond the use of a bathroom, and yet the weak are caught in the crossfire.

And I'm realizing how easy we had it. We, American Christians. There are many places in the world where Christians have had absolutely no voice politically and no rights for many, many years. We now are entering an era where the most politically incorrect thing to do is to actually draw a line dividing right and wrong. It's an era where even self-proclaimed Christians, who would rather keep a false peace with the world than work with endurance for the true Peace, are publicly speaking against other Christians, pushing us away from the table and asking us to surrender our "outdated" and "ignorant" voices.

I know that I am just an emotional creature, not like the transcendent Creator, and I need help to see rightly.
Holy Spirit, help me see. Lead me into all truth. 

While there are so many things wrong about this issue, God's Word stands forever and He has made promises, all of which make even more sense in light of this.

"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;

he turns it wherever he will.

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,

but the LORD weighs the heart." 

(Proverbs 21:1-2)

God is greater than my voice and more powerful than any government- and yet, overthrowing our government is not on His agenda. Not yet, anyway. His kingdom is not of this world, after all (John 18:36). These issues have been filtered through the hand of God because they serve a greater purpose. They violently shake me, waking me from my sleep to the reality of spiritual warfare. They force me out of the comfortable, lukewarm grey and into the narrow black and white, where there are uncomfortable truths and I must face them head-on. I can't just float upstream and hope no one asks me where I stand and why. Lines are being drawn whether I'm the one drawing them or not.

I don't get to choose to only teach Norah the "pleasant" verses of the Bible because, as Scripture promises, persecution is coming. I can't hide in my comfort corner and try to ride it out because she will be living in the thick of it and it is my job to equip her so that when she faces the temptation to deny this Jesus, she will be able to stand. I can't be passive in my teaching her about biblical femininity because in the days to come, there will likely be no distinction between the unique and beautiful roles of men and women in families or in society. I won't have the option of trusting the culture of the Bible belt to show them the person of Jesus, which requires me to be all the more diligent in discipling them.

He gives grace to the humble and brings low the exalted. The world that my baby girl will grow up in will be strange and dark and different, but the God pursuing her heart is the same good, just, all-powerful God. I cannot expect or assume rights from a secular government when He promised hardships, persecution, and hatred from the world. I won't push away from the table, but I will render to Caesar what is Caesar's, namely, the access to a secure, public biologically-female-only bathroom. And what God gives is so much greater- lessons, challenges, a calling to get out of the ambiguous, passive shadows where truth holds no weight and step into the light, where there is contrast and definition and breath-taking colors that have all been created by God distinctly for His purposes and glory.

No, this world isn't "safe" and it never has been. The only One able to bring about "world peace" was killed by men who resigned to give the crowds what they wanted. But true Peace cannot be overcome by death and He came, not to reconcile the liberals and conservatives to one another, but mankind to God. When our eyes are on the greater picture, the giant pill is a little easier to swallow and the grainy image comes into focus. There are no revolutions or rights or bills that will bring about this kind of peace- corporately or individually. The empty ache and the restless angst will grow deeper and more intense with every passing day that the soul does not bow itself to the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace. And we, who know Him and have access to His heart, can't pretend that what we see isn't brokenness. We are faced with making the decision to let anger and fear win, or to surrender them to the Almighty as we ask for redemption and pray for His Kingdom to come.

"I sought the LORD, and he answered me

and delivered me from all my fears. 

Those who look to him are radiant, 

and their faces shall never be ashamed." 

(Psalm 34:4-5)