Abortion is a huge issue. In America over 40 million lives have been aborted since 1973 (about 4,000 lives everyday). Around the world every year 46 million abortions are performed (over 120,000 babies lost everyday). The worldwide, lifetime average is about one abortion per woman. These are lives forever lost, lives forever changed.
Lainika was listening to Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson one hot summer day while waiting in the car with my mom stuck in road construction. The program that day discussed the pain women whove had abortions are forced to endure. I never really thought about the after effects that occur post-abortion, but for women who have made the choice, there is a long agonizing road ahead.
As Christians, most of us tend to shun women who would willing discontinue the life of a baby growing within them. We picket and protest but what do we do when one of them shows up in our church looking for answers? What Would Jesus Do? Tough question, is there a simple answer? Life isn’t simple but Jesus’ love is. We need to reach out to the young, pregnant, teenage girl faced with shame, hurt, betrayal and fear. We need to hold up the woman who has come from within the clinic, bleeding, wounded, confused, and filled with regrets. We need to extend the love of Jesus to the hurting and searching souls.
The song “God Are You There” is a song that tells the story of a girl faced with an unwanted pregnancy. Her partner deserts her, her fears are rationalized and the notes to her lifesong fall flat. She gets an abortion. She is tormented day and night by both her choice and her pain. Is God still the God of love that she learned about at VBS? Does He still care about her life and destiny? She turns to the only place she can, the church She gets her answer from us. Jesus isn’t on earth anymore in a physical body. He depends on His followers to show the world Who He is. What are we telling her? How are we treating her?
God Are You There and the story behind it are not meant to promote abortion. Quite the opposite, we believe that all life is sacredly ordained and given by God. The God Who listens to our deepest secrets, heals our hurting souls and loves us no matter the mistakes that we make. God is still there, after an abortion or after a blindsided accident. No matter what we face, God is there to face it with us. The road of life won’t be easy to travel. We’ll encounter hardships, ridicule, adversity, suffering, need and want but with God to forgive and fulfill we can rejoice in the healing balm He gives with His presence in our lives. God Is Still There.