For life

I started writing down my thoughts for this post on actual paper and I hope this goes well because well, I'm writing this on my phone which is okay, but I can't type the same so the words might be not be the same.

Yesterday, the family trekked downtown on the bus to the Cleveland March for Life. It's an odd thing to go to a March or maybe just pray in front of a clinic when pregnant. Why? Because the emotions are so different and you can actually put yourself in the shoes of the woman wrestling with this heart wrenching decision.

One of the things that pained me was the carrying of the graphic images by those around me. To me, I feel like those images are more hurtful than helpful especially when pregnant. They just made me sad and really had me crying. Because while yes they are accurate, I'm not sure who they are really trying to reach. Maybe they are going after the guy counterpart involved, the one that operates off of logic and facts, but even then I'm not sure if it's making them colder in the issue or actually helping. It was ironic to then read Simcha Fischer's post which basically said something similar but with more proof.

And here's the thing. I love marching for life. I really do. I just don't think it needs the gruesome to support the truth and beauty that life is.

You see the March and I have an interesting history. I lost my first baby around the time of my second March experience. There I was marching for life for saving it while at the same time I was my baby. And while I didn't medically know the exact moment or if they were still hanging on at that moment it was still really hard. So the point in March where those graphic images were huge and clear I cringed. I hope one doesn't need to lose a baby to know those images hurt more than help to try see and be more compassionate but maybe it does take that.

To me it's similar to taking the approach to sharing the gospel of Jesus as a crazy street preacher would. It may be true, but there is zero compassion there. I remember even having to take a class my Baptist university before mission work about how not to shove Jesus down people's throats. They knew that forming that trust and having compassion to know where some one was coming from much more effective. So when it comes to life issues, I feel like there is a distinct parallel. These women seeking an abortion are people and they usually are in a tough situation, while those may be truth they are also scary make you want to run away from the problem as quickly as possible which means having the abortion, despite the aftermath years later.

I think about the women in my life who have had to face difficult situations where people told they to have an abortion versus carry the baby, because it would have been easier. And yes, externally it may have appeared easier, but I'm glad that they choose differently. I'm glad I was able to support them and others too so that they could give those babies life. It may have been rough, but I know each one of those women is so glad to have those children in their lives. They are blessings and not burdens.

The thing is, I know the support isn't always there. We live in a broken world full of broken homes and big problems. Even those of us who appear to have it together don't really as this life is messy and we can be easily influenced to justify something wrong as right. My prayer though is that the pro-lifers want to be that support and are. Instead of these hurtful rash statements we listen and talk and be there. I remember movie Bella in which the guy actually goes and helps the woman by raising the baby for her. This is the point we need to be at, as hard as it is to uproot our lives to do it. And the thing is so many people do. There are saints living and breathing out there doing this and I'm so thankful for them. To be completely selfless in that manner is amazing to say the least.

But one more thing, I feel like the March for Life doesn't just stop with the issue of abortion. I feel like it should incorporate those who have lost that baby due miscarriage or stillborn or ectopic pregnancy or disease or yearning and praying for a child to be theirs on this earth. We are all effected by life in its brevity or loneliness or its pain, and some how, through the tears we realize what an amazing gift it really is. And when you do, you don't want to take it for granted one bit more. Because that gift, the chance to experience life, that is definitely something worth marching for...