day no. 15,977: contraception is practicing inhospitality

Romans 12:13

Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality.

God commands to our weakness and for the benefit of others. If God commands us to share with those in need and to practice hospitality, it is not because we were going to do those things anyways. He has to command them because we weren't going to do them. We want to keep what we have, protect it, and keep others from being able to access it regardless of their need. We practice inhospitality. We, by default, close ourselves off to others and elbow them out of that which we have claimed for ourselves. 

Few places demonstrate this better than our attitude toward conception. 

Instead of practicing hospitality, we practice contraception. Instead of looking for ways to share with those in need, we look for ways to first meet our needs before considering inviting anyone else in. Instead of a welcome mat for fertility, we spend our energy and money building fences. If the ones in question are Christians, they install a gate and assume that when they finally get around to sending out warm wishes, children will inevitably accept the invitation.

James 4:13-14

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

We assume children are standing at the door knocking and that the only thing keeping them from moving in is our willing readiness. But the Lord opens and closes the womb and we do ourselves no favors by reinforcing selfish habits in our inhospitality. A uterus is a home of and a regular practice of inhospitality is not easily interrupted once established. It cannot be simply assumed to be broken by the right incantation. Fertility does not come with a simple on/off switch.

We assume we can keep kids out while assuming that they will come when we're good and ready for them. However, our ability to deprive ourselves is greater than our ability to bless ourselves and our current practices are preparing us to preemptively empty our nests. We save ourselves the difficulty of watching our beloved flock fly the coop by cracking our eggs. We are a scrambled people.