It’s amazing how, at times, we can believe we see things so clearly… yet at the same time, remain so blind.
For example, there are those who see clearly — with righteous anguish — the true horror of six milliion Jews being slaughtered in the Holocaust. Yet many of these same people turn a blind eye to the true horror of the slaughter of tens of millions of unborn children through abortion.
I know. I used to be one of them.
Arguably, I was one of the “first.” It was in 1974, less than one year after Roe v. Wade was passed by the U.S. Supreme Court, that I exercised my “choice” and had an abortion. That was back when the numbers were just over one million. Since then, an additional 56.5 million babies have died in the U.S. as a result of similar “choices.”
There’s no way to sugar coat it… is there, Lord? No way to trivialize it. These are not merely “blobs of tissue.” They are babies at various forms of development.
Ask any mother who wants her child and is seeking the earliest possible confirmation through home pregnancy testing kits. She can now know as early as six days before her first missed menstrual period. Wow… That’s about three weeks? When she gets that “positive” test result, there is no question in her mind that she is carrying a baby inside her.
Yes, there are choices… and there are always consequences. I almost died from the terrible choice I made. Not because of any medical complication, but because of the horror of knowing in my heart-of-hearts what I had done. Dare I say it? I had taken the life of an innocent child. There is no way to sugar coat this either… is there, Lord? In any other context, such a taking of life would be called “murder.” A harsh truth for a harsh act.
So harsh, I almost took my own life, too. So much pain. So much desperation. So much hopelessness… until You intervened and brought me back from the brink of suicide. Even though I didn’t know at the time it was You.
By Your Amazing Grace, in the many years that followed that Fate-full Time, I found HOPE in the horror of my own choice. Not because there was anything right about what I chose to do… but because You loved me in spite of it, Lord. And, as impossible as it would seem, You forgave me. You paid the price for me. Your brought Life out of so much death.
And I will have forever to thank You.
So I see (and hear) what is happening in the national news this week with the eyes and ears of one who has experienced this issue from various vantage points. As a victim and a victimizer. As one who was lost and who is now Found and Forgiven. As one who has, by Your Amazing Grace, found Hope in the Horror… and who prays for that same Hope to be found by everyone who is touched by this terrible Tragedy — this Travesty.
What’s happening this week? The latest covert videos exposing senior physician executives at Planned Parenthood of America discussing the gruesome details of “harvesting” and selling various body parts of aborted babies.
These videos are almost surreal… like scenes from some horror film that I would ordinarily turn off so I don’t store those images in my mind. But this is not some fictional horror film. It is a documentary of Real Horror.
How can I even sort out the many emotions in my heart, Lord?
My revulsion at how callously one doctor could be strategizing how to precisely crush a baby to death in the womb to keep intact its most profitable organs. (All the while chomping down on salad greens and sipping red wine.)
My shock at how coy another executive could be as she negotiates the sales price for those babies’ organs, glibly joking about wanting her next car to be a Lamborghini.
Both of these encounters between Planned Parenthood’s national executives and the purported reps of an organ brokering company occurred in restaurants, over meals. I wonder how the conversation would have changed, Lord, if You had suddenly turned up at their tables as a waiter, asking: “How may I serve you?”
“… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)
What would these same executives say to You, Lord, in the moment they knew they were really talking to You — the King of kings, Lord of lords?
Would they justify to You the half billion dollars of taxpayer money they receive each year because of all of the “good” they are doing for society? Would the one executive claim she had “earned” that Lamborghini because of all of the profit she had negotiated for her employer (Planned Parenthood)?
Would they justify a woman’s “right” to have an abortion on demand (for any reason), at any time up to the moment of birth… claiming it’s her body so it’s her decision — period?
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…” (2 Timothy 3:1-4)
That about covers it… doesn’t it, Lord? Except there’s more. As impossible as it seems, there is HOPE.
“Who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
So where is the HOPE is this terrible Tragedy/Travesty, Lord?
I have HOPE that those who are being deceived will hear and embrace Your Truth. I HOPE that hearts will change and the lives of many babies and adults will be saved, literally and spiritually — mothers, fathers, abortion doctors and their staffs, abortion clinic leaders, staffers and funders, Including the very executives seen on the videos released this week.
Help me pray, Lord, as never before. Even for those who might seem like enemies. Even without the love in my heart for them that You have commanded me to willingly choose.
And please, Lord… Help stop this latest (and continuing) Holocaust.
With a heavy — yet HOPE-full — heart…
Abba’s Girl