I admitted up front in last Sunday’s sermon, “What To Do About Things Like Abortion and Racism,” that every year I struggle more with this particular message than any other. The challenge of speaking from the Bible to complicated subjects like abortion and racism for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday surpasses any other preaching assignment I know of in terms of degree of difficulty. I never feel adequate for the task, but press ahead nonetheless given the stakes.

However, my heart soared after the service when approached by a newcomer to OGC. She wanted to thank me for the message. She told me she had driven by the building often and considered visiting but felt especially drawn to our service yesterday. The story she told me made the “why” plain.

A single mom, she shared with me with tears in her eyes that just six years ago she visited the abortion clinic up the street where we and folks from other churches engage in sidewalk counseling to offer people like her alternatives to abortion at crisis pregnancy centers. She intended to abort her child. The counselors on sight called out to her and she responded. She turned around that day, spared her baby’s life, and has been raising her child ever since.

I say to every one of us with a burden for the unborn and the dear people so conflicted and bound by idols of the heart that they can somehow justify child-killing that every effort made to intercede and intervene counts. Do not give up. Persevere. Your efforts matter. You never know what God will do. Fight the good fight. Even just one precious life rescued is worth the price.