Resist Hate

Last night I received a text from a young man who had brought his girlfriend to the abortion center where I minister as a sidewalk counselor for Cities4Life . I was already in bed. I rise long before the sun, and so usually go to bed when the sun sets...or before....

I woke up in the middle of the quiet, dark night and noticed I had missed the text. When I read it, I could not fall back asleep. The young man and his girlfriend had decided they would keep their baby and they wanted to meet with me this weekend. They wanted the help Cities4Life and our partner ministries could provide.

I was so excited that I spent the next few hours in prayer and plotting what resources I would need to pull together for this young couple and how I could best present the glorious truth of the gospel to them. This was on the heels of a call I’d received earlier that day. 

A sixteen-year-old girl had called me. She had considered abortion, but her friend, another pregnant sixteen-year-old girl told her about these people with Cities4Life who told her really cool things about God and offered all kinds of help. So the teen called me saying she wanted to hear what I had to say about God and about any help we could offer. She did not want to kill her baby, despite all the people in her life urging her to do so.

She had a troubled and sorrowful life. She had gotten in all kinds of trouble in school, which she said were efforts to get her mom to pay attention to her. She attempted suicide. She’d been discarded by her boyfriend when he learned she was pregnant. When I talked to her about filling the emptiness in her heart with the glorious presence and love of Jesus, she wanted to submit her life to him immediately.

Already, she has been connected with a mentor, resources, and help. She is on my daily Bible email list. She told me she received the scripture I sent this morning, and she was grateful. She couldn’t wait to meet with her new mentor. This lonely young lady has landed at last in a safe haven.

Today, when I arrived at the abortion center sidewalk, one of the “pro-choice” people swerved at me as she pulled to the side of the road. She gave me the finger, and parked. I glanced at the back of her car.

When she got out of her car, I said, “Good morning. I noticed your bumper sticker. Do you think giving me the finger is resisting hate?”

“Yes,” she said, “You deserve it for screaming at women.”

“For offering them help and resources, you mean... so they don’t feel they have to abort?”

She didn’t answer as she set up under the shade of a tree as her post to usher women in to kill their babies and to tell them we were crazy liars and they should not talk to us.

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James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.