There were two incidents recently that reminded me of how deeply we need to rely on the power of the holy spirit to convict in our work in front of Abortion centers.
Our team spent much of the morning calling out to a woman who was dressed head to toe in purple. I only add that detail because we remembered her every time she would come out of the abortion center since she was dressed in a very distinctive way. She mocked us. She laughed at us. She joined the people who oppose us. As she stood in their midst, she smirked at us and occasionally yelled vile things. Throughout it all, our sidewalk counselors were kind but truthful, offering hope and help.
As we always do, we called out to every single person who entered the abortion center. One of those people was a young couple. They also apparently ignored us, and went in to the abortion center. One person challenged the young man not to be a coward but to get his girlfriend out of there, do everything he could for her and the baby, and we would help him.
It was the middle of summer and had been brutally hot for weeks. We were all worn out from the battle of staggering numbers of women coming for an abortion in our state, as well as from the oppressive heat.
I was up the street trying to encourage cars to stop, and the women to speak with me before they ever reach the abortion center. It has become increasingly loud and chaotic at the entrance to the abortion center and I think women are terrified to stop because there are so many people in opposition to us urging them not to do so.
It was near the end of our three hour shift and we were all sweaty, hot, and tired. We had seen no visible fruit from our efforts. However, our team knows that we are standing there in obedience to the Lord. Not a single baby will die without a voice advocating for his or her life.
The lady dressed in purple came out of the abortion center and started walking up the street. She waved our other two counselors away. I heard her tell them it had turned out she was not pregnant. I was not sure I believed this since she had been in the abortion center all morning. I felt it was probably more likely that she had had the abortion.
Nonetheless, as she approached me, I said,“I heard you tell my friends that it turns out you’re not pregnant?“
“That’s right. I’m not pregnant.“
“How do you feel about that?” I asked.
She just shook her head and frowned at me. I told her I knew it was probably likely she didn’t want to be pregnant since she was at an abortion center. She repeated that she was not pregnant. I asked her where she was from and she told me Georgia. I asked her why she would’ve traveled all the way from Georgia not knowing if she was pregnant. She told me a story that was so unlikely that I think it’s possible it was the truth.
At any rate, I asked her what she would have done if she had turned out to be pregnant. She told me she didn’t know. However, then she began reciting a litany of rationalizations and justifications for abortion that we hear a hundred times a day. She also talked about how we could not judge without knowing the circumstances that people faced. She mentioned rape, horrible men, and child abuse.
I quietly listened to her as she ranted. I have found that is often the best way to show that I regard someone as a fellow human being on a difficult journey. No matter what, I try to be respectful. This is not always easy for me, and something I am learning to do better the longer I walk with the Lord.
When she finished her impassioned spiel, I asked her if she believed in Jesus and considered herself a follower of Him. She said she did. I asked her if Jesus was truly her Lord, would she ever consider abortion. She dodged the question. Instead, she listed more rationalizations for why it should be allowed. She reminded me she had not had an abortion because her pregnancy test was negative.
I then asked her if she was married. She said no. I asked, “If you thought you were pregnant but you’re not married, are you living the life that God would have you live in terms of sexual purity outside of marriage?”
The answer, of course, was obvious.
She stopped in her tracks in the hot sun and turned to me.
“Are you telling me you don’t want me to have sex unless I am married?!” She was incensed.
“I’m not telling you that. God tells us that. Do you think God says it is OK for you to have sex outside of marriage? Look at where it brought you. Is this a place you think God would have you come?”
She dropped her head and quietly whispered, no. She knew it was not. And at that moment, there was a shift in her spirit. This has happened so many times that I know no other way to describe it other than a Holy Spirit moment. God was touching her soul with conviction.
The other part of that shift occurs in me. I lose all sense of stumbling over words or worrying about what I’m to say. I forget my shyness and look directly into the person’s eyes. I know the Holy Spirit is speaking to her soul. It is nothing I do and it is nothing I can control, other than by being obedient to God’s call.
This is a feeble explanation of what happens, but it happens often out on the sidewalk where there are so many wounded people who are so defensive and angry. They are desperately trying to protect a choice that they know they cannot really protect.
I asked her if I could continue walking with her. She was headed to the bus stop. She would then take a bus to the Amtrak station. The train would return her to Georgia. She told me I could walk with her.
I walked with her for about a mile, sharing the gospel. Every so often, she would stop in her tracks and stare at me. And then, she would ask good questions, the questions I had asked when I was seeking the Lord but still fighting Him.
By the end of that mile, she came to the conclusion that she had not repented with true repentance from her sins. She realized that Jesus had never been Lord of her life because she had lived in continual willful defiance of what she knew He was asking of her. She also decided that she wanted to commit her life to Him right then and there in the hot sun on her walk away from the abortion center.
As always, if I were not there myself I would probably not have believed it. She prayed to God out loud in her own words, submitting her life to Him as Lord of her life. When she finished, I gave her one of my painted rocks to commemorate this day. It has the verse from Jeremiah 1:5– before I formed you in the womb I knew you, beside a painting of an unborn child.
I suspect she really may have had an abortion, although it’s possible her crazy story was true as well. Either way about it, I think she now has at least the first step of a faith that will lead her from ever making that choice down the road.
Later, I found out that the young man we had spoken to earlier had stopped with his girlfriend on the way out of the abortion center. He told our team that he was glad we were still there. They were overjoyed to tell us they had decided not to kill the baby! He said he was not going to be a coward today so he had gone in the abortion center and gotten her out of there. He said neither of them had ever really wanted the abortion. All they had needed was the voice of someone telling them they should not do it.
When the church shows up at the places where a vision of true hope and life most desperately needs to be heard, the Holy Spirit works miracles. Across the nation, there is a critical need for sidewalk counselors willing to be advocates for the unborn. God is calling us to be the voice that speaks truth about the sanctity of life. If the church does not fill that void, Satan will.