What Will Sustain Us Through the Bitter Days of Bombogenesis?

I checked the weather this morning to see how many layers I will need to put on to survive my four or so hours on the sidewalks of the Southeast’s busiest abortion center. I will be attempting to speak in the frosty air to abortion-minded moms along with my Cities4Life team to encourage them to choose life, and to offer the help and resources to make that choice easier.

BOMBOGENESIS the weather headline declared.

What is bombogenesis? It is a low pressure system that drops so cataclysmically that, like a bomb, it dramatically intensifies storm potential. Usually occurring in winter, it is responsible for some of the most devastating snow storms and cold. 

Lovely. How many layers does it take to survive bombogenesis?

The windchill will be 7 degrees when I arrive on the sidewalk this morning. 7. SEVEN degrees. Folks, that is colder than upstate NY from which I fled to this supposedly balmy southern clime. 

But sadly, even bombogenesis will not stop abortion minded women on their own path of destruction so I will go stand in the cold for as long as I can stand it.  (For the record, my electric gloves have no visible effect below 30 degrees.) If you can recommend ( or even better: send) electric gloves that work in bombogenesis conditions, please let me know. I will pay almost anything.

However, as I sit in my warm home, contemplating what my next few hours will be like, there is a warming thought. Babies who might otherwise die might be saved if we are there to encourage and offer hope to those moms with their frozen hearts.

I was reading scientific studies about the power of hope the other day. There is no doubt that one of the strongest inducements to forge ahead with life even in very dark and ominous days is the presence of HOPE. When we lose hope, we lose the will to live. 

What gives us hope?

Something better is ahead. If we believe there is light at the end of the tunnel even if we cannot see it, we are sometimes willing to crawl further in the darkness. If there is relief of pain promised, we are able to endure what might otherwise be unbearable. If there is peace that will evolve out of all this turmoil, we can sometimes forge through the mess. If there is someone who will catch us if we stumble over the abyss and carry us safely to the other side, our fears might not overcome our strength to stay the course.

There IS. The name of hope is Jesus.

One of my favorite verses in Jeremiah, which I quote often on the sidewalks is: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

The promise of God’s eternal hope is offered repeatedly throughout the Bible.

Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Where do we find this hope? Titus 2:13 tells us unequivocally: Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

Our hope is in Jesus. The light at the end of the tunnel, the cessation of pain, the peace, comfort, and eternal safety we all long for  rests in Jesus. Our hope for eternity where all is as it should be is fulfilled when we put our trust and faith in Him.

I will call this HOPE-O-GENESIS: the miraculous intensifying of hope such that despair and desperation are obliterated by the blinding truth of abundant eternal life in Christ.  That is what will sustain me, the women I encounter today, and I pray you as well in these bitter cold days.

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Colossians 1:27   

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Psalm 130:7 

O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.

Psalm 147:11 

But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

1 Thessalonians 5:8 

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.