Pro-life setbacks across America on election day serve as a wake-up call that a culture shift away from protecting life is underway. Culture (or the hearts and minds of the people) is always upstream from the politics. There could be no clearer example than when a majority of voters decide at the polls to embrace the killing of unborn children, with no limits, and no apologies.

No courts to blame. No excuses about referendum language being confusing or hard to understand. In this post-Roe era, the upstream decision is in the hands of the people. The downstream results are a startling departure from respect for life created in the image of God.

Time will tell if the midterm elections of 2022 are a temporary reaction to the overturning of Roe, or the rumblings of a much deeper shift. In any event, the race to the cultural tipping point on abortion is in full throttle.

The priority must be upstream, and that means winning hearts and minds, but not in a generic sense. After all, everyone talks culture change, but what does that actually mean? For the LoveX2 Project, it means persuasively calling our communities to love every mom and every baby, including every unborn baby, no matter what. Why? Because every life has intrinsic, God-given value.

Now is not the time to obsess about the 2024 elections. Let the networks and pundits hash that out on the downstream side – we must be about much higher things.

For every follower of Christ, now is the time to pray, to understand the world around us, and to look for where God is already at work. And then be right in the center of it, on the upstream side.