Reimagining Pro-Life: 30 Days With Save the Storksنمونه

HEART //

Imagine that you have a friend who calls herself a musician. She is constantly talking about music. She goes to concerts almost every week and frequently reads magazines and articles that detail the makings of a great artist. Even after years of knowing her, though, you have never actually seen her play an instrument. You start questioning if she is even a musician at all! She may be highly educated and passionate about listening to the hums and strums of others — but she isn’t really a musician if she does not create music for herself. 

As Christ-followers, we often find ourselves in a similar conflict. We surround ourselves with the sounds of Christ-following — diligent devotionals, moving music, prayerful podcasts, spirited sermons. These are good and godly things, but in order to live on-mission for Christ, we have to get past mere head-knowledge of Him. We must also overflow with the acts of Christ-following! If we never actually do what Christ did, how can people possibly know that we are His followers? 

Love, like faith, manifests itself in what we do. We cannot say that we love the lost or that we care for abortion-minded women and the unborn if we do no nothing to meet their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs (1 John 3:18). 

As we enter this final week and final challenge of 30 Days with Save the Storks, let’s review just a bit from our previous weeks! Letting go of our preconceived notions, judgments, past mistakes and fears gives us space to engage with this issue of life in our generation with love and compassion. As Christians, we are defined by love and compassion. This means being willing to “suffer with” another - seeing and staying with them in their process or pain. 

We will spend our last week together remembering the various ways we can truly impact lives when we live with intentionality, on a mission to love others, as the collective Body of Christ! 

// WORK

In matters of faith and love, there is no such thing as a ‘passive Christian.’ This week, we want to encourage you to put your faith into action by empathizing with women who have found themselves in the predicament of an unplanned pregnancy, in particular. 

For these women, the burdens that accompany this dilemma are real, but they are mainly social and economic situations that, as a church, we can strive to impact in our own communities through generosity, teaching, and discipleship. Many times someone facing parenthood when they don’t feel ready can’t shake feelings of loneliness, possibly being at odds with their partner, family or communities that had once stood by their side. They can also feel fear, not knowing how to navigate this unexpected turn of events, or experience great anxiety, questioning how they will be able to provide for their child. Can you imagine the burdens these babies would carry if they could understand the gravity of their parent's decision to keep or not keep them — like the weight of being voiceless, unwanted, and without a defender? 

So, here’s your fast for this week. To empathize with families considering abortion, acquire an assortment of stones, rocks, or bricks. Make sure they’re large enough to write on, because you’ll write on them the specific burdens that abortion-vulnerable mothers carry. Include anything that has come to your mind and heart over the course of your 30 Days with Save the Storks so far. (Look back over your journal!) Then, fill a backpack or bag of choice with the stones, rocks, or bricks you’ve named with burdens. Carry that bag with you wherever you go!

It could be for an hour, for a day, or even for the remainder of our thirty days together — if you’re feeling strong and brave, that is! The point is to stand in solidarity with women facing an unplanned pregnancy and the child they carry. As you do this, journal about what it would be like to spend every day carrying these physical, emotional, mental, relational, and/or spiritual burdens.