When He Comes, He's Right on Time

                                  

Five women chose life over abortion yesterday while we were ministering on the sidewalks of the busy Charlotte abortion center. I was really excited to be wearing our new pink Cities4Life shirt. Sometimes it's the little things in life that pick you up. I had not been feeling well. Three days of headaches and vague ickiness were taking a toll. But as soon as I showed up on the sidewalk, Patrick our RV driver, prayed for me and told the headache to go away. Then Daniel, our director, showed up and asked me if I wanted a new pink Cities4Life shirt. Already, the morning was brighter.

                                     

One of the women who chose life pulled out of the abortion center in her car, and parked alongside the curb so we could give her a gift bag and offer our resources. Tears streamed down her face.

"This was an emotional decision for you, wasn't it?" I said.

She nodded, not quite able to speak.

"Do you want to see your baby on the ultrasound?"

She nodded again.

She shared later that she knew God, but was so overwhelmed by her circumstances that she ignored what she knew in her heart to be right and true. When she heard us on the microphone and calling out to the women, she felt God was sending her a clear message. Don't do this. She said He had been sending signs for days, and she had not listened. She was listening now. Her phone rang. While on the RV after choosing life, she received a job offer for a job she had very much wanted.

When I told her about all the resources we had that could help her, the tears flowed anew. All this poor woman needed to make a choice for life was the nudge of the truth she already knew in her soul and the offer of support and resources. As it turned out, she didn't even really need the resources. She just needed someone to say, "What would God have you do?"

The friend who had accompanied this young woman said she'd been praying the whole time her friend would turn from abortion. She gave me a high five and said, "When He comes, He's right on time."

Amen to that! I realized as I drove home, glancing happily in the mirror at my new pink Cities4Life shirt, that my headache was gone.

**********

Habakkuk 2:3 

For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

Psalm 27:14 

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Isaiah 40:31 

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

One Person With God

I went to the 42nd anniversary of Roe V Wade memorial in Charlotte yesterday. It was very moving. As my friend, Lisa, one of the directors of Cities4Life, was introduced with one of the mamas she'd counseled who had chosen life a few years ago, I snapped a photo. Later, as I looked at it, I saw that sunbeams were radiating across the scene and settling on the Mama, Lisa, and the child who had once been slated for abortion. I hadn't noticed that at all while standing there during the ceremony. What a beautiful picture. I think it speaks eloquently of God's pleasure in this wonderful warrior for Christ, and for the sanctity of life. This mama was so affected by her near abortion, that she has recently started a non-profit organization that will provide transitional housing for other mamas who choose not to abort, and are in dire need.

I teared up not a few times that morning.

As the ceremony ended, the organizer told us if we wanted to take the anniversary pamphlets and hand them out, that would be great. I have never been one to hand out tracts on the street. The  people that do that sort of thing are people I have shunned in my past. But, I grabbed a handful, and decided to hand them out as I walked back the half-mile to my car. Some people ignored me, but many took my pamphlets. A group of two men and a women were on the edge of the sidewalk. I stopped and asked if they would like my pamphlet.

"Oh," said the woman, "I would like one! I am a reporter and I was supposed to cover this event! Will you walk with me and let me interview you?"

So I walked with her, telling her about Cities4life and how we help the women who choose life over abortion. She asked many questions, and I answered them all. I cited some of the terrible statistics about the emotional upheaval of women who choose abortion, including the suicide rate. She seemed genuinely intrigued by how many women actually change their mind, right there at the abortion center. She also was vigorously nodding her head as I described how we are not protestors, but advocates for life, and approach those women with lists of resources and real help in accessing them.

"We do help many of the women," I told her,  "but ultimately, abortion is a Gospel-issue. If we are going to change the culture that believes that abortion is the answer to terrible circumstances or inconvenient pregnancies, we must change the heart. Only Jesus can do that." She wrote that down. I hope it goes in the article. The most important thing we do is challenge them to examine where they are spiritually, and why abortion can never be the answer. Not from a moral/ethical humanitarian aspect, and certainly not from a spiritual one.

I talked with her the entire walk back, where I introduced her to the organizer, Flip Benham. She took my number because she said she'd like to talk to me more.

"Flip will set you straight on anything I said that was untrue," I laughed, passing her off to Flip. We shook hands.

"I really enjoyed our discussion," she told me as I waved and scurried away. It felt like she meant it.

I hope she doesn't twist my words. To the degree that one person is able, I so want to change the heart of this community, of this nation such that we might never memorialize a 43rd year of legal abortion. As I gazed at the photo later of the sunbeams falling like a benediction upon the mama who chose life and her sidewalk counselor, I was grateful that none of us are just one person. We are each one person with God. 

********************

charlotte.cities4life.org

********************

Jeremiah 1:5 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Genesis 9:6 

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Exodus 20:13 

“You shall not murder.

Psalm 127:3 

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psalm 139:13-16 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Isaiah 49:16

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Ephesians 2:10 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.