Every month, it seems we have more news of a comment or act that leaves us breathless. It was just recently that a state representative faced some backlash after controversial statements he made on the Alabama House floor.
“Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now, or you kill them later,” Alabama State Rep. John Rogers said after the Alabama House of Representatives passed what could become the most restrictive abortion legislation in the country.
Some kids? I can remember in my childhood when I found out my dad had adopted me as his own that I felt in my mind that I was unwanted. I didn’t understand the true love and mercy that was shown by my adoptive dad. I chose to believe the lie that I was “unwanted.”
Even as an adult, those lies of being unwanted seem to pop up now and then.
How have we as a society come to this point? Let me ask you, at what stage would it be okay to take my life or that of any human being who feels unwanted?
I could ramble on about the reasons why this world leaves any one of us feeling broken and unwanted from time to time. Those are certainly not reasons to kill us now.
Consider a dormant garden at the end of winter. Many would look at the hardened soil and assume there is no life that lies beneath. But really, if we take the time to break away the dried soil, we will soon discover new life. A fresh bloom that simply needed someone to come along and pull away the deadened root system.
We seem, as a world, to want to hastily brush away the problems at the surface, hoping to immediately correct the issue, in this case, the perceived unwanted-ness of an innocent child. But if we instead choose to dig in, understand, and remove the deadened roots that have made a woman believe she cannot have a child, we could help her discover new life within her and her unborn baby.
I stand as a servant for the Pregnancy Resource Center in Maryville, Tennessee, ensuring that everyone who walks through our door is loved and valued. Not only that, but that every single person who is carrying a sweet child believes their child is a wanted child, even in that moment of panic.
Fear can be a very loud voice. I know because I have been there. The excuses and justifications to end a pregnancy stack up on top of an already hardened root system of all of the ways in which our clients have been wronged throughout their lives.
We welcome these families with open arms, ready to dig in with both hands. Ready to jump into that hardened past, whatever that may be, and say, “We are here and we will always be here.”
We dig in with them. We dig deep and find that faulty root system, and take it out. What happens next? New life is what happens. Through pregnancy help ministry, we have restored the very root of life to women and their babies. We have given them hope.
Rep. Rogers, it isn’t that anyone is unwanted. It’s a lack of love, it’s a lack of compassion, and it’s a lack of action to help remedy the problem that obscures our appreciation for the gift of children. Our job is to restore our appreciation for life, not stack more dead roots on top of the hardened soil.
In pregnancy help ministry, we need people who will dig in with both hands. When women are facing unintended pregnancies, we need people who will help lift their defeated selves. When they get to a place where they are tired and want to quit, we need people who will go before them and love them and say it is worth it. We need people with a heart and desire to spend time with others.
To those looking to serve, will you dig in and help families be brave? Will you run the race with them when life gets hard? Will you reject and disprove the demeaning words of those who want to take life in the womb, on the table after birth, or at any point?
I choose to dig in. That means serving our community with love, compassion, and action. That is at the very core of the movement I want to work with. That is what our pregnancy center and our mobile medical unit are doing every single day.
The next time another person rises and says that any human being is not valuable or wanted, we will choose to keep digging. We will choose to keep showing up to the garden for those who are hurting; we will keep showing up for the broken.
That’s the garden I want to work in. One that restores those who feel unwanted. A garden that is changing our community, a garden that is changing our state, a garden that is changing our world. A garden blooming with goodness and life.
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