Why I'm In Business For Life

“Well, you have no choice.  She has to get an abortion.”  These words from my best friend were still ringing in my ears, as I searched the Scriptures for what God had to say on the matter.  My head told me that I couldn’t allow fatherhood to derail my college career.  My heart told me that trying to convince my girlfriend to get an abortion was not only wrong, but futile.  But, it was God’s Word that ultimately persuaded me:

"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be."
                                                            (Psalms 139:13-16)

After reading this passage, I made a note in the margin of my Bible that simply read, “NO ABORTION”.  It wasn’t an option.  God had confirmed what my heart had already been telling me.  Ironically, it was a false alarm.  My girlfriend wasn’t pregnant.  Nonetheless, the seeds of my pro-life convictions were planted deep within my soul.   I didn’t know it at the time, but that defining moment would soon find me “in business for life”.
  
Over the next three decades, those seeds of life were continually watered with tears,   as our extended family faced seven unplanned pregnancies.  My wife and I have seen the perils of children parenting children.  We’ve held the precious gift of life that many times only an adopted child can be.  We’ve seen God turn mothers’ mistakes into life-saving miracles.  We’ve heard the voice of God speak clearly on behalf of the chosen ones whose birth mothers were unable to care for them.  Time and time again, we’ve seen mothers choose life when it was anything but an easy choice.  But, it was always the right choice.

Shortly after 9/11, my seeds of life began to bring forth fruit that, to this day, unnerves me no end.  In what pastor/author, Bill Hybels, refers to as “a whisper from God”, I heard God calling me to play some role in helping to:

“Abolish abortion in America in my lifetime” 

Along with this whisper came the name, “In Business For Life”.  I’ve always assumed this to be the name of an organization that God wants me to start, but have yet to hear His starter’s gun.  What I have heard is His gentle wooing of abortion’s “living victims” –the estimated 50+ million American men and women who have participated in an abortion.  Setting these captives free by offering the forgiveness, faith and freedom that only God can give is essential to re-establishing a culture of life in America.  Thereafter, the gates of hell will never prevail against the pro-life, soul cleansing tsunami that is destined to wash across our country.  “They will know the truth and the truth will set them free”…and abortion will take its rightful place as a permanent bloody stain in our nation’s past.
 
I fervently believe that my home State of Indiana will play a critical role in leading America to victory in The War Within the Womb.  Our march towards an abortion-free country starts in our neighborhoods, cities and states.  Who’s stopping us from shutting down the abortion clinic nearest our home for lack of demand?   Why couldn’t Indianapolis become an abortion-free city?  What other state is more worthy to become known as “The Crossroads of Life”?  If not in downtown Indianapolis, where will we erect the official national “Memorial to the Unborn”?  Of course, it must be built to ensure that we never again lose our way when it comes to the sanctity of life.  Why can’t Hoosiers build it?  Shouldn’t we start planning now?

If you think I’m dreaming, you’re right. I have a dream that my five children will one day live in a nation where their right to choose will once again and forevermore be constrained by the rights of all others to live. I have a dream that abortion, like slavery 150 years ago and racial discrimination a mere 50 years ago, will be legally abolished in America in my lifetime. It is a dream that must be fulfilled, for the very future of our Nation depends upon it.  I believe this dream emanates from the very heart of God and the souls of the great leaders in our Nation's past.

Yes I know, abortion is perhaps the most divisive, politically incorrect issue in America today.   But, did you know that the most dangerous neighborhood in this great Nation is within  the wombs of its women?  One in four who enters never makes it out alive.  Did you know that in the America of the unborn, it’s been 9/11 every day for nearly 40 years?  The daily human toll within American wombs is greater than that of the fallen “Twin Towers”…now totaling over 56 million and counting.  Most importantly, did you know God has much to say about it?

"Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,"
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay each person

according to what he has done?" 

(Proverbs 24:11,12)                                                            

Now you know why I’m in business for life.  In future posts, you'll be invited to join me, as we change the course of human history...one innocent life at a time.