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God certainly has an interesting, yet beautiful way of directing our lives. I have often heard the saying, “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.” This has been particularly true for my life in the Pro-Life Movement. Since I was little, my parents would take me to Right-to- Life Meetings, to pray outside of abortion clinics, and to other pro-life events. From a young age I learned of the ugliness of abortion and the culture of death. I also grew to understand the surpassing beauty of Life, and that the physical life of the unborn and especially the spiritual life of mothers and those involved in abortions are worth fighting to preserve.
As I got older, this understanding of the dignity of life and of God’s love for human life convicted me so much that I chose to help in Pro-Life work with God’s inspiration. I joined my high school’s Pro-Life club and became it’s president my senior year. In college, I joined Students for Life and ended up heading the university’s Pro-Life Apologetics ministry for three years. A year ago, I interned at a Pro-Life crisis pregnancy center, counseling women in need, and have since become a sidewalk counselor.
But here’s the thing: even though I have been exposed to and personally active in Pro-Life work my whole life, so much so that I sometimes consider it a part of who I am, it still doesn’t feel normal or comfortable to me. Part of it is my personality; I am a quiet person, an introvert, who doesn’t like confrontation. But quite frankly, Pro-Life work shouldn’t be normal or comfortable. We shouldn’t have to encourage mothers to let their own children live or remind anyone that every human being is a person with inherent dignity and worth.
Pro-Life work is a work of mercy who’s purpose is to call out, prevent, and make reparation for a mortal sin that is seen by many as not a sin, but a right. This makes this work particularly difficult, but the difficulty gives testament to God’s abundant grace for His workers.
In all of the Pro-Life work I have ever done and still do, I have been reluctant and fearful. These are my weaknesses, which God works through to reveal His strength and glory. And when He does so, even the most trying situations can radiate with His peace, love and joy. It was pure grace that I accidently joined my university’s Pro-Life Apologetics ministry. I had mistaken the ministry’s table at the ministry fair for a different table and the person at the table persuaded me to come to one of her meetings. After that I thought, “Well I could go to one meeting.” So I did, as well as the next and the next, until I was out on the street talking to a stranger about abortion!
By the end of the year, I was the only person left to keep the ministry alive, so I became its leader, feeling inadequate for the task, but placing it all in God’s hands. That is one example, but it is not unlike the other ways the Lord has gotten me to into Pro-Life work.
I am amazed at what the Lord has done, and I praise Him for any good He has done through me. I would advise anyone who feels a pull towards Pro-Life work to be open to allowing the Lord to work through you, no matter your own weaknesses and fears. He will provide you with the grace and strength to do your part. Just trust in Him and allow Him to be glorified through you.
To Jesus through Mary-Rebecca Pimentel