Getting Low for the Lost
One day last January, God alerted me to the truth that an aggressive, cruel spirit, masking itself as an angel of light, had quickened its assault on humanity.
8am: a man to whom I had been sharing Christ stopped our conversation short by introducing me to his new male lover then politely refused any more ‘God-talk.’ Noon: some dear friends called me to in tears to tell us that their son had just ‘come out’ and that the conservative Christian college he attended was supporting his new ‘gay self’. 4pm: a Christian leader called me to ask for help for a devout father of 4 children whose wife had just abandoned the family for a female lover in CA.
6pm: I staggered home, literally dizzy, disoriented by the darkness tearing apart individuals and families.
I prayed and immediately a scene from an old Hitchcock film appeared. A murderer is fleeing the authorities in an amusement park; to escape them, he leaps on a crowded merry-go-round. He strikes down one pursuer who falls on the lever which determines the velocity of the ride. The carousel speeds up, to the delight of the kids then to their peril. Now spinning like a top, the merry-go-round casts off all restraint, sending parents and children in every direction.
One mechanic nearby knows how to slow the ride. To do so, he must get on his belly, and slither under the carousel until he reaches its center. There lies the brake and the only hope for stopping the carnage. He gets low, and saves many lives from the chaotic subterfuge at hand.
I believe that God is asking the same of us. Will we get low in this hour and cry out for godly restraint in our land? Will we cry out for mercy for our sins, for our loved ones, for our beloved, idolatrous nation? God responds to the heart humbled by its own sin, steeped in mercy. We face an irrational, growing deception that the ‘gay self’ is good and must satisfied at all costs. Only the cry for mercy can restrain such deception.
We get low for those who have been disoriented by secular misinterpretations of same-sex attraction. Hear the voice of one who was raised by two mothers.
Robert Oscar Lopez writes: ‘Growing up with gay parents was very difficult, and not because of prejudice from neighbors. People around us did not know what was going on in the house. To most outsiders, I was a well-raised, high functioning child. Inside however, I was confused. When your home is so drastically different form everyone around you, you grow up weird. I have no mental health disorders…I just grew up in a home so unusual that I was destined to exist as a social outcast.
My peers learned all the unwritten rules of decorum and body language in their homes…they learned both traditionally masculine and feminine social mechanisms…I had no male figure to follow, and few recognizable social cues to offer potential male or female friends, since I was neither confident nor sensitive to others. Thus I befriended people rarely and alienated people easily…Life is hard when you are strange.’ (‘Growing Up with Two Moms: The Untold Children’s View’, Public Discourse, August 6, 2012.)
For 40 days, beginning September 28th, we are going to get low and cry out for those like Robert Lopez who have been thrown off the carousel. For the sake of generations to come, we ask God to employ our repentance as merciful restraint to its velocity. For a full prayer guide to our 40-days of prayer, email aarmstrong@desertstream.org.
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