Grab Some Tea -- This is a Tough One

It's time for some hard convo friends.  It's gonna be painful and personal.

I will start with asking you to read this blog post.  I always wish I could word things like Ann, but her thoughts just come out so much more eloquent.  And those pictures.  My.goodness.  The baby sweetness in this post brings me to tears.  Especially considering the topic.  

So, let's do this.

Church, we have got to move from harsh judgement and criticism of women who choose abortion to unrelenting support of women who find themselves in a position to consider it.  Never stand upon your high horse and pretend it couldn't be you.  When you are 19, alone, and scared too death.  Trying to be the first in your family to graduate from college, just out of an abusive relationship, with no where to turn - you might just be surprised what you would consider.  When you are a 30 year old mother of five, no husband, working full time and still not able to put food on the table, looking at your hungry and hopeless house full of little ones - you just might be surprised what you would consider.  

The women who choose abortion are not all raging feminist liberals who claim that it is "my body, I can do what I want with it."  In fact, in my experience, that describes very few of them.  Abortion clinics are filled with terrified young women who feel they have NO other choice.  Some are pushed there by boyfriends or husbands or pimps.  Some are there with their sanctimonious parents who don't want anyone in the church to know what their daughter has done.  Very few strolled in completely of their own accord.

And what do we, the Church, do?  I can tell you a few things.  We post on FB about the evils of abortion and how it is murder.  And it is.  We stand outside on the sidewalks of abortion clinics praying and holding signs.  I've done that, maybe there is a place for it - I'm not really sure anymore to be honest.  We rant about being "pro-life" from the comfort of our living rooms - while all of our children's bellies are full.  I told you this was going to get personal.

This has got to STOP.  To truly be pro-life, we have to be willing to do whatever.it.takes.  Whatever it takes.

Globally, there are 44 million abortions per year.  Per year.  Let that sink in a moment and then add that to the 160,000,000 (conservatively) orphans and vulnerable children that we already have that need families.  Church, we have dropped the ball.  What if all of those women annually begin to choose life?  What then?? 

We must be willing to give up what we think we want - more money, less children, more stuff, more travel, more "toys," bigger homes.  We must be willing to put our sisters first and we must be willing to help.  We must serve these women who feel they are in a position to actually kill the life inside of them.  God help us - the heartache of such an unimaginable choice.  And the part we have all played in it.

"The compassion of Christ-followers needs to literally and practically and sacrificially be: “We will not rest until all humans beings get to be born, because they are wanted.”  Ann

Yes and Amen.  

Folks, this is not going to be an easy fix or an overnight one.  It is not going to be neat and tidy - there is no 12 point program.  It is messy, painful and dirty. I am going to give you a few ideas that our family tries to implement.  I would love to hear your ideas in the comments.

 Frequent your local homeless shelter, handing out plates and giving out hugs.  Take your kids - these folks love kids and kids are uninhibited.  Patrick gives out hugs at the homeless shelter like it is his JOB.  It brings tears to the most hardened eyes.  What does the homeless shelter have to do with it, you ask?  Well, many trafficking victims are homeless, many rapes occur on the street, and of course humans have sex and babies result - even on the street.  Women who can not even care for themselves and feel like they have no other options, choose abortion.  It is all connected.  

Reach out to the young girls in your church.  Especially the ones who come to youth group, and you never see their parents.  Church kids don't have sex, you say?  

Don't be naive.  You have to talk about the hard stuff to get in this fight.  You can't be shy or squeamish.  You can't be embarrassed.  Most teenagers have sex.  Face it.  If you don't want yours to, you had best talk to them - often and openly.  And if you want them to believe you to truly be pro-life, you had best have an attitude of forgiveness.  Even good kids make choices with their raging hormones.  You want them to come to you without fear.  There is a great blog post floating around somewhere called "When the Wages of Sin is a Grandchild." It is good - find it.

Volunteer at your local Pregnancy Resource Center.  They are doing great work and they are woefully understaffed.

Have the hard conversations with the men and boys in your life.  Male promiscuity is a huge factor in abortion.  Males who believe they can have all the fun with none of the responsibility are a dime a dozen in our culture.  Train your sons to be men - and then get your family out there to speak into the lives of boys who have no one to show them the way.  You won't have to look far.

Move forward from the FB posts to the action.  Fight on your knees.  Pray and fast and then ACT.  It will take all of us.  It is a task that is overwhelming at best, but we must not let the enormity of it paralyze.  We can all speak into the life of one person.  And when we do that, we realize that we are blessed and that we CAN.  Then, God gives you another person, and another.  And then friends, THEN we see the change.  

FB posts are fine place to start, hard conversations are better -- action, action is the BEST.