We Do it Anyway

We were warned in a recent Cities4Life team email not to be discouraged when we had days where no woman chose life for their babies, despite our best efforts on the sidewalks outside the abortion mill. We had to remember that God alone can change a heart. All we can do is be obedient to the call to speak His truths to those marching to destruction. We like to report how many women we know of that choose life because it encourages us, and it encourages those who support our efforts. But it is important to keep in mind that we may never know the impact of our words and actions, speaking and trying to live the love of God in one of the saddest, darkest places on earth. And if no one makes a visible commitment to life, it doesn't mean we have been there in vain. Nothing done in obedience to God is done in vain.

But sometimes it feels like it!

Good timing on that message to our team!

Yesterday at the abortion mill, there were no "saves" that we knew of. Unless you count one really crazy event. Two women pulled into the parking lot, and our whole team took turns calling out to them, beseeching them to get our free ultrasound in the pro-life RV parked nearby, get our literature filled with resources that could help them,  and please stop and talk with us about how we could help them overcome any objection they raised.They argued a little with us, and honked their horn to drown us out. One went in the abortion mill, and the other drove away. I watched the car as it drove down the street to see it pull in front of the ultrasound RV! The woman got out, was met by the nurse, and went in the RV! Later, she returned to the abortion mill,  and waited in the car. Some time later, her friend came out and got in the car.  It turns out, the driver had gotten an ultrasound, and found out she was pregnant. She planned to keep her baby. I don't know if it technically counts as a "save" because she may have intended to keep her baby all along. Her passenger had aborted her child.

Can you imagine the drive home those two had? One rejoicing to discover she was going to have a baby, the other describing her experiences killing hers?

A grandmother that I had spoken with for a long time pulled over after dropping a girl at the mill.
"I wanted to tell you I think it is wonderful what you all are doing. I offered to keep the baby myself but she refused. My grandson doesn't want the baby." (How many think of the collateral broken hearts when a woman chooses to abort?)
"Is he the father?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Is he here?"
"No, he's home."
"Call him. Let me talk to him."
She did. I heard his voice as she handed the phone to me, "No, I don't want to talk with her..."
I grabbed the phone. I told him how just yesterday I saw a father who had wanted to abort his child but had instead held his newborn and told me he had never anticipated the complete change of heart.
Click.
Dial tone.
"He hung up," said the Grandma.

The day got worse. A woman who chose life Saturday despite the boyfriend's anger and insistence that she abort, returned to the abortion mill. One of the counselors who had been there Saturday recognized her. We pleaded, and gave every scripture, and argument we could think of against aborting the baby, but to no avail. She chose in the end to listen to the boyfriend that threatened to leave her if she kept the baby. (Sadly, 85% of those couples split anyway after an abortion.)

No one ever said that following God would be easy. I am reading the book of Jeremiah right now. Remember him? In reward for his work for God he got thrown in a well and sunk in the ooey disgusting mud at the bottom.  He did what God told him to do, and continued to do so because he could not ignore God's call. But no one reading the book of Jeremiah ever mistakes his work as pleasant or easy. (Clue: the other book written by Jeremiah is called Lamentations.) Jeremiah is also known as the weeping prophet. Small wonder:  Jeremiah was attacked by his own brothers, beaten and put into the stocks by a priest and false prophet, imprisoned, and threatened with death, besides being thrown in that terrible, deep, mud-filled cistern. All for speaking the word of God and urging His people to repent and return to God.

The Lord's work is sometimes painfully sad and difficult with little evidence of reward.

We do it anyway.

If we believe God has asked us, we have no choice. If we love Him, we do it anyway, even when we see only gooey mud at the bottom of a deep, dark well, and broken hearts, and little babies dismembered and thrown away like garbage in the trash bin.

Jeremiah 4:31
For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,
anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
 stretching out her hands,
"Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers."