There was a 16 year old girl who had her life ahead of her. She was in JROTC and she had plans to go into the Air Force. This girl also had a crush on a guy in his young 20’s who was in a gang.

There was a party that this guy was going to be at and this girl really wanted to have a chance at seeing him, so she went. 

Both this guy and this girl inebriated their senses with drugs and alcohol. One thing led to the other and months later, this girl discovered she was pregnant.

The guy had threats towards his life from the gang life he was involved in and so he ran away to another state to go in hiding to survive.

The girl was told by most of her peers and family to have an abortion. Even the father’s friends threatened to get metal hangers and remove the baby forcibly.

Only a small handful of people tried to persuade this girl not to have an abortion.

Though this girl chose to give her baby boy life, she also resented the child as an interruption. Not to mention, the maleness of the child was a painful reminder of the men who had wronged her. 

With repetition in her story, the girl reminded her male son of the daughter she intended him to be. 

This child mainly grew up in an abusive home with seasons of a single-mother house and other seasons of a shuffle of men and temporary step-fathers.

The child saw that most other children had a parental male figure, so he wondered out loud, “Who is my daddy?”

His mother responded tersely, “the postal man” which confused the young boy.

At elementary school age, the boy met his father. They both only had several summers together before the daddy left the world at 34 years of age leaving a 12-year-old son to figure out how to be a man.

Darwinian Evolution seemed like reality when it was taught in middle school. The world seemed cruel so his perception of his life experience seemed congruent with Darwinism. 

Sinking deeper into despair and suicidal ideation, he allowed more of the nihilism to permeate his lenses on everything. He longed for death and tried numerous times to end his life. 

In his science class, the teacher set up a debate on pro-life vs pro-choice. Even though his life was almost an abortion, he was on the pro-choice side because this was what he was conditioned to believe.

He took the pro-choice stance while a girl in the class defended the pro-life position. Normal to him was seeing the devaluation of human life, so seeing the middle school girl passionately argue for life moved him to question his views. He began to think that maybe there was hope in the world if there were people who cared about life. 

It was powerful to face a courageous defender of life and not be impacted by the experience.

The girl identified as a Christian and spoke of the God of the Bible as a reason to defend life. 

One of the last people he was close to who lived an authentic Christian faith was his father who discovered faith before he passed away.  His dad’s last words to him were, “If you want to get closer to me get closer to Jesus first.”

This boy lost his safe haven when he lost his father.

He tried to cling to the advice of his father and so he found himself seated in a church pew, but the church was founded on legalism that shunned the boy, so the boy left bitter and bruised.

 

But the experience with the girl was a foil to his church encounter. 

 

Maybe someday all of this will make sense and maybe someday it will have been worth it to live.

 

Why? Because someone finds life worth living. That message didn’t only speak of babies but it spoke about now. 

Fast-forward in time and this boy became a man who came to Christ and married a woman whose health took a tailspin and left her immobile. 

Some encouraged him to let his wife die or encouraged euthanasia but her life was valuable to him, so he fought for her life and cared for her as her full-time caregiver.

His wife was told she would never be able to carry a baby, but her broken body became pregnant. Her pregnancy was considered high risk so he received advice to prepare for an abortion in case the pregnancy put his wife’s life at risk.

Not only did his wife give birth to a healthy child without defect, but her health began to improve from the life of the child within her. She received enzymes and other benefits from the child within her womb which transformed her from bedbound to now mobile.

I’m that boy turned man who was almost an abortion story, who was also a full-time caregiver to a wife whose own life was saved by a baby.

I celebrate the value of life today as the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade was overturned because I’ve discovered how much life matters. Life is worth fighting for.

Conferencing Questions

 

 

  1. Have you ever questioned the value of life? If so, can you detect the roots of what led you to diminish the value of life? In this story, Michael mentions that his abusive upbringing led him to see life through the lens of nihilism and Darwinism which colored his perspective on life.
  2. In the story, the boy is impacted by a girl who stands up for life in their debate. Have you ever taken a similar stand? If so, consider taking a moment to pray that your stand in the past would still have an impact on the people surrounding you today and in the future.
  3. In the story, Michael mentions that his wife carried a baby which helped her health improve through enzymes provided in pregnancy. Have you ever considered that carrying a baby could have a valuable impact on a woman, even one considered high risk?

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