My lovely wife will tell you, when I find a movie I truly like, I’ll watch certain scenes over and over. I might be clicking through the dial and find Moneyball, Apollo 13, Facing the Giants, The Blind Side or even Cars, and if my timing is close to a drippy scene that brings me to tears, I’ll watch it.
So it is with Disney’s 2002 movie, The Rookie, with Dennis Quaid. The flick tells the true story of high school science teacher and baseball coach Jim Morris, a former major league pitching prospect whose arm failed him during a brief career in the minor leagues.
While teaching and coaching however, Morris—married with children and in his mid-30s—finds his arm again. After some soul-searching, he is encouraged to give baseball one more try.
At one point—as happens with most movies—Morris faces a point of decision. He feels stuck in the minor leagues again; tired, broke and ready to quit. He calls his wife to tell her it is time to pack his bags and come home. But something happens after the phone call. You can watch it in the clip above. Morris has a change of heart.
I love the particular moment when Morris walks back into the minor league clubhouse after his epiphany. He sneaks up on one of his teammates and with a big grin, says, “You know what we get to do today, Brooks? We get to play baseball!”
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Yep, I’m brought to tears. Here is a guy who realizes that even though the pay is low, the bus rides are long and the ballparks half empty, he gets to do what he’s always loved. He gets to play baseball.
I don’t know about you—or all of us in the pregnancy help community—but I need to be reminded sometimes, “You know what we get to do today? We get to save lives!”
Yes, we see lives of babies saved. But first, we are saving the lives of women from pain and heartache. We are saving men from the defeat of giving up on their own offspring. We build families. We are a part of freeing so many from the regret and bondage of a past decision.
We literally change the world. That’s what we get to do.
Though they won’t admit it, some in the abortion lobby sneak peeks at this site and to those of you who do so, I have a question: What do you get to do today?
This isn’t a question asked in anger, but in curiosity. What do you celebrate? What brings you unspeakable joy? I won’t attempt to answer because I have no idea.
I know this; sometimes we in the pregnancy help community struggle with our calling. The pay is not yet where it needs to be, we face crises in the lives of those we see almost daily and we’re not in the short-term solution, quick-fix business.
Tweet This: In the #prolife community, we get to save lives, celebrate birthdays. @KirkWalden
We’ve got to invest a lot of our emotional and spiritual energy into those who come in our door and sometimes we get absolutely nothing in return.
But as I speak to those in the abortion community, I still say, “C’mon over. You know what we get to do today . . .” and I would gladly provide a list of amazing opportunities where we get to see lives changed.
We get to celebrate those first birthdays, or the woman I heard last year who said to an audience of supporters at a pregnancy help center banquet, “You don’t understand what you’ve done. You saved my life!”
We get to celebrate a dad embracing a child, or a woman who broke from the shackles of poverty and finished her college degree. We get to celebrate when someone comes back to us a year or so later with victory in her eyes, saying, “You told me I could do it, and I can!”
That’s what we get to do. And though I can get angry when I read what those in the abortion crowd are doing to destroy our work (Read Jay Hobbs’ article on their opposition to car seats—one of the best articles I’ve seen on the zealousness of the abortion lobby), I am reminded, “We get to celebrate life.”
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Jim Morris made it to the major leagues, leading to another couple of scenes that had me trying to figure out whether I’d been peeling onions or had a broken tear duct.
For us, I’m not sure if there is a “Major League” for us to think about. But I know this; long after we’re gone, the fruits of our labor will be walking this earth with their children, grandchildren and beyond. That’s good enough for me.
“You know what we get to do today?” Like Jim Morris, I’m facing the future with a smile.
And if you’re peeking in from an abortion center today, you don’t have to stay there. Today might be the perfect day to come join us and find out what you’re missing. You’d be a Rookie, but the life of a Rookie turned out quite well for Jimmy Morris. It can for you, too.
Kirk Walden is a senior writer with Pregnancy Help News, an Advancement Specialist with Heartbeat International and author of The Wall. For banquet speaking engagements,
