A Day of Mourning, a Day of Sending

On Saturday, Feb. 23, two major events took place, one in Orlando, Florida, and the other in Albany, New York. Both were sponsored and led by evangelical Christians; both events drew thousands; but the fact they took place on the same day was entirely providential. This was not a matter of human planning.

The Orlando event, called “The Send,” had been scheduled many months in advance, held in the Camping World Stadium. The Albany event, called the “Day of Mourning,” was scheduled more recently in direct response to New York’s horrific new abortion law.

Organizers of the “The Send” asked this simple question: What if every believer was activated to live out the lifestyle of Jesus?”

The event was a call to action. A call to repentance. A call to service.

It was a call for Christians to live as Christians. To go into their communities and into the nations of the world, sharing the gospel of Jesus.

As the website proclaimed, “Gather with 60,000 believers as we take action unto seeing a new era of missions and evangelism.”

Specifically, “From The Send gathering, we are believing for each participant to commit to adopt one of ‘4 mission fields’ and commit to a season of focused prayer for America and the nations.”

Those four mission fields are universities, high schools, neighborhoods and nations.

The website the Day of Mourning said this:

The state of New York just voted to expand abortion access right up to the birth of the baby! To celebrate this unbelievable depravity, they lit the One World Trade Center in pink! Women used to celebrate motherhood and find joy in their children. Today, in places like New York City, they are taking joy in destroying their children. The state of New York has crossed a line of inhumanity that should drive us to our knees. Forty-six years of the state-sanctioned killing of our most helpless and defenseless children should cause us to weep, to mourn, and to take action. What is to be thought of a society that kills her own children? What will the future be of such a heartless society that celebrates such barbaric inhumanity?

“If the foundations be destroyed what shall the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3) We are calling for a national Day of Mourning and repentance. We are in desperate need for God to move upon the hearts of young and old in our nation. If our hearts do not break over the killing of these little image bearers of God in the womb, then how can we expect those growing up in this lost, confused and decadent culture to take our message seriously?”

Organizers called on Americans to set this day aside and wear black; don’t shop; close businesses; repent for abortion.

Both events agree on this central theme: Jesus Christ is the only hope of our nation. Without His intervention, we are utterly lost, careening down a swirling spiral of self-destruction.

Both events agree that there is no political solution to our nation’s deepest problems, no earthly fix to our woes.

We must look to the Lord and Him alone. In prayer. In repentance. In mourning. In action.

We must cry out to God for mercy, repenting for our hardness, our complacency, our worldliness.

Then we must get involved in the business of saving lives and saving souls, beginning in the womb.

We must repent of our indifference and then, with the Lord’s help, go and make a difference.

Do we forsake the political process? Do we give up on the courts? Do we turn our backs on public education? Do we assume Hollywood is too far gone?

To the contrary, we bring prayer and the gospel into each of these realms, staying involved as witnesses and voting and petitioning and taking righteous stands.

But we know there is only hope for America. That no president is our savior. That no political party can redeem us. That our schools need a reformation. That Hollywood needs a revolution. And even at their best, the White House cannot save us, the courts cannot deliver us, the schools cannot transform us and Hollywood cannot liberate us.

The answers we need are found on our knees, confessing our own sins, recognizing our own faults, acknowledging our own guilt, asking for mercy.

The answers we need are found on our feet, sharing God’s love, serving our neighbors, rescuing the unborn, preaching the gospel, shining the light, speaking the truth.

It is no coincidence, then, that these two important events took place on the same day, one in the North and one in the South, both appealing to the same God for the same results: that a culture of death and destruction would be replaced by a culture of life and hope.

It’s time to mourn. It’s time to go.

If each of us does our part, the nation will be shaken.