Did God abandon me....or is it the other way around?

Calvary, oil on canvas, 16x20, available
conact vickychooseslife@yahoo.com

A woman pulled her car alongside the abortion center with her blinker on but stopped for one of my sidewalk team members, Chrissy. She rolled down her window. Somehow, Chrissy convinced her to talk to me, and she agreed to let me take her on our mobile RV for the free ultrasound. As she got out of the car she told me in no uncertain terms that she could not have this baby and was going to abort.

However, she would go ahead and do the free pregnancy test and ultrasound, since she had to do that anyway before aborting. When she got on board and I asked what had brought her here that made her feel this was her only choice, it became quickly apparent that she was very angry with God. She said that she had prayed so many times for a better life, and God has answered none of her prayers.

She even claimed that years ago, she had accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. However, as the years went by, she rarely read her Bible (if at all). She only went to church briefly for a few weeks, then stopped altogether. Her prayers ended when the life she wanted didn’t materialize.

After hearing her concerns, which were mostly financial, I told her I felt we could meet every one of them. First, I flipped through the pages of our pamphlet that shows babies at various stages of development in utero.  Step-by-step, I encouraged her to tell me if the baby at a lower level of development was of more value or less value than a baby at a higher level. She told me their value didn't change from one month to the next. She even looked at the 40-week old, and the newborn, and agreed the value didn't change in the moment they went from womb to newborn.

I asked the same question regarding value changes with difference in the baby's size, level of dependency, and environment where the baby resided. She agreed on every point that the baby’s value was not determined by any of those things. (For those of you in active pro-life ministry, this is the SLED method and it is very effective.)

Then we returned to a discussion of the obstacles facing her that had made her feel abortion was her only option. For each obstacle, we offered a realistic solution that has helped many of the women we work with. She could not hide behind her rationalizations any more. She had to come face to face with what this choice to abort was really all about.

Thus far, the good news was she’d come to the conclusion that the value of a human being is intrinsic, based on the fact that God created human beings in His image. She also agreed that every objection she had raised did not trump the value of human life. She admitted she knew now that abortion was wrong, but she was still struggling.

Next, I moved on to citing abortion statistics, including the physical and emotional trauma to the mother. Increased depression, increased suicide rates, substance-abuse, Post-Abortive syndrome, shattered relationships, and physical ailments are a few of the staggering collateral damage of abortion. We showed her what happens in an abortion of a baby at the same gestational age as her own baby. (If you don't know, click HERE. It is mind numbing what a civilized society passes off as a humane and valid choice.) She was horrified and said she had no idea that that’s what happens during an abortion.

Now, we took her back to the ultrasound unit. Her baby put on a wonderful show. The baby was very active sucking her thumb, kicking, doing flips. The mama smiled as she watched her child on the screen, and commented about how active the little baby was. Sherry, the ultrasound nurse, spoke about the unique and wonderful attributes of the little baby at this stage of development. Knowing how determined this mama was to abort, Sherry took a lot of extra time, and let the living proof of the little person seep into the mama's heart.

As we walked out of the ultrasound room, I asked the mama what she was feeling now, and she said “I am not going to go in that place[the abortion center]. I am going to go home and talk with my boyfriend now.”

Our final discussion as she finished filling out the discharge paperwork was about God.  I shared the gospel and talked about God’s work in my own life, and how he had redeemed me from a life of selfishness and doubt  to one of faith. Sherry also shared the miracles of God and the joy of following Him from her own experiences.

The mama talked morre about her anger with God and how she wonders how He could take things away from her and not tell her why. I then shared with her the story of Job, a book I feel like I have lived for the past couple of years. I told her that everything was taken from Job except his life. He grew very angry with God and demanded answers to his questions: WHY?  But God never answered those questions, never told him why. All he told him was how: How Job should live having now seen God face-to-face, knowing that he could trust the creator of the entire universe without God’s explanations of why He does what He does. Job got the message. His response should be all our responses:

Then Job replied to the Lord:

“I know that you can do all things;

no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me to know.

“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.’

My ears had heard of you

but now my eyes have seen you.

Therefore I despise myself

and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42: 1-6

By the end of our discussion, she understood that it was not God who had abandoned her, but it was she who had abandoned God. 

We wrote a list of the things that we would do to help this mom.  I walked her to her car, not fully certain she would drive away from the abortion center. As I waited, praying and waving, she did indeed leave and drive  away.

In  all honesty, I’m concerned. She is what we call a "shaky save", and it could go either way depending on the discussion with her family and her boyfriend. In fact, last night I exchanged several texts coaching her on her discussion with the boyfriend. The fact that she was texting me was a good sign, but she was clearly still on the fence.

Before she left the RV yesterday, she told me that maybe God was answering some of her prayers. Maybe she had seen a miracle already. She said when she first pulled up in her car, she was telling herself, “Don’t stop for those people, and don’t roll down the  window.”

 But something  made her roll down her window.

“Maybe that was God," she said, looking hopefully at me.

I agreed, and encouraged her to read her Bible, find a good church, and pray to God. I told her it was one of the most unbelievable privileges of all that the creator of the universe wants us to know Him, and wants us to talk to Him. And I told her that when she asks God into her life, the Holy Spirit of God Himself indwells  her and guides her in truth. How cool is that???

“You know when I first saw you,” she said, “I decided I would come and do the ultrasound, but while you were talking I was thinking, as soon as I finish the ultrasound I will leave and get the abortion. But then, something happened. Something changed in my heart. Maybe that was the Holy Spirit working.”

I found out as I was driving home listening to the radio that the Supreme Court of the United States had just struck down the Texas abortion laws which increased safety rules for the mothers in the abortion clinics to match those of any surgical center. Abortion on demand was apparently more important than the women's safety. This ruling was a great disappointment. However, laws will never truly affect matters of the heart, and abortion is a heart and Gospel issue. We must change people's hearts.

Three women chose life at that Charlotte abortion center yesterday. Three women’s hearts were convicted that what they were about to do was wrong. It is a small percentage of those that were there, but it is cause for great rejoicing. Every little person's life that is spared is cause for rejoicing.
*****************

Ezekiel 11:19 

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

2 Corinthians 5:17 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.