Download LifeDate Summer 2025 – Every Life Is a Story
by Diane Albers, President of Lutherans For Life
“Who are you? Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! I really want to know!” (“Who Are You?“ The Who, 1978) Are you singing it with me? In today’s world, people are apt to tell you more than you want to know about themselves—or tell you what they think you want to know! Just look on social media!
So, what’s your story? What defines you as a person? Is it your job? Your power or your wealth? Is it your high school (that’s a St. Louis thing!) or which Concordia you attended? In 1517’s Bible Study in One Year, Chad Bird tells us in his discussion of Revelation 1 that God gives us our identity: kings and queens and royal priests. Revelation 1 describes Christ as a royal priest and that’s our identity, too, because we are in Christ. We are royal since Adam and Eve ruled the garden and priests since Jesus stood there in John’s vision in His royal robes. How then should we live?
“I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17).
This is the mission of LFL: Equipping Lutherans and their neighbors to be Gospel-motivated voices For Life. Because we are royal priests, we need to be proclaiming the Gospel message that Christ died and rose again to pay for the sins of all—“recounting the deeds of the Lord.” Nothing else really matters because nothing else will really make a difference. Without a proper understanding of the Law and the Gospel, abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, human trafficking, stealing, lying, etc. can be completely acceptable.
Our task is to make sure that our fellow Lutherans and our neighbors know how much God loves us just as we are. Look at this fingerprint. God made each of us unique. There is no one else just like you. God knew you before you were born (Jeremiah 1:5). He knitted you together in your mother’s womb. You were fearfully and wonderfully made, and God had a plan for your life even before you took a breath in this sinful, beautiful world that He created for you (Psalm 139: 13-16). Even with all our sins, and even our rejection of Him, God is patiently loving us and calling us back to Him through the Holy Spirit. That’s your story, friends. Go out in your God-given identity as a king or a queen and a priest. Don’t go in fear and trembling, because when He calls you, he’ll be with you!
“Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Exodus 4:12).