Dear Friend,
Don’t roll your eyes just yet. This isn’t a stab at you. It’s not about rich, poor, or anything in between. It’s not a debate between Republican or Democrat, right versus left, liberal against conservative. It’s simply a conversation, one born out of love. I’ve watched my life change drastically over the past decade. I’ve considered myself a Christian who holds a personal relationship with Jesus for over twenty years, but my opinion on matters of the world has altered over the past few. It wasn’t some church indoctrination that made me change my mind, but rather the Word of God. As I became a regular reader of the Bible, meditating on scripture for hours a day, my life just changed. My actions changed, how I treated people, how I loved others, and how I deciphered right from wrong. So if anything, consider this a Bible study between friends.
First, I would ask you to do me a favor. Settle your mind, and lay down personal emotions. Forget friends you know who went through whatever. Don’t think on personal experience or even emotion. Don’t let anger from past arguments cloud an open mind, and don’t allow issues beyond this one to come into play. Abortion isn’t about race, government assistance, political party, or socioeconomic status. It’s not about rape, incest, or genetic abnormalities. It’s not about adoption, the foster system, or child abuse. It’s not even about women’s rights, a misogynistic society, or discrimination against the female sex. I know you think it is, but those are all side-notes.
See, I’m not saying those things aren’t problems. They are. I believe black lives matter. I believe I have white privilege, and I believe my husband has more power in this world than I do. If we lined up a black man, me, and a white man for a job interview, and the white man was the least qualified, he’d probably get the job due to worldly prejudice that the hiring manager doesn’t even realize exists. I’ll probably get some disagreement from some of my more conservative friends, but that doesn’t make it any less true. I’ve seen it in my own life, and I’ve even seen prejudice in my self when I look closely and honestly. So, all I’m saying is that the problems we bring into the topic of abortion are there. I’m not making light of them, but let’s not make something that is simple harder than it has to be. Complication is how Satan clouds truth. Truth is easy to see when we open our eyes. Let’s just have a conversation about abortion. The world says this is a tough subject, a hard discussion to have, because there’s too much to consider, but I say that’s not true. Abortion is about one thing. Life. Anything we try to bring into that is only clouding the truth. Abortion isn’t an issue. It is simply what it is. Murder. Now, may I tell you why?
See, I can totally understand people who are not Christian deciding to be Pro-Choice. They don’t understand the foundation of created life, how life can be more abundant despite circumstance, or how this life doesn’t matter as much as we think when held against eternity. To them most everything is meaningless. They don’t understand the Spirit that lives within us. Of course they’re in favor of abortion. They don’t get the foundational truth of why human life matters, and why one isn’t better than another. But you, my friend. You break my heart. I love you, so much, but I cannot sit here and not proclaim the truth to you. The truth is, you cannot love Jesus and be Pro-Choice. You just can’t! Let me explain.
My husband and I had an interesting conversation the other day. We were discussing mistakes we had made in life. Now, realize we are not theologians, but we do have beliefs we have derived from scripture. And while some of those beliefs may be an “I’ll have to ask God about that when I get to Heaven,” other ones are pretty clear per the Bible. Like, do not kill; that’s pretty clear. But what is life?
So, back to our conversation. We felt like God had us to be husband and wife, but we as young humans, having free will, slid off track. We both led sinful lives that didn’t put Jesus first, and we both entered marriages that were not right. They both ended in divorce and brokenness, something we know God didn’t have for us, but we also knew God worked all things for our good. One blessing that God had brought for my husband was his first daughter from his prior marriage. He did not regret having her, and he wouldn’t change being her dad. Yet he said something I found wonderful.
“You know,” he said, “I guess God would have brought Marlie into the world even if he didn’t do it through that marriage. He had her in mind before that.”
What he was saying is that God has each of us and our unique spirits in mind before we’re even conceived. Crazy, right, but it states this several times in scripture.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. (Jeremiah 1:5)
We are more than flesh and blood, you see? In that vein I could almost agree with those who claim a fetus is nothing but a clump of cells. Heck, I’m a clump of cells too, but what makes us more than that is the spirit God puts in us. It’s that spirit He knows before He even places us in the womb. It’s that spirit that gives us life. Our bodies will waste away and die, but our spirits will live on. When abortion takes the body of a baby in its mother’s womb, I praise the Lord that the spirit of that child lives on in Heaven with Jesus, but I weep for the life it never was allowed here on earth. God gives us our spirit, and then He gives us the body to hold that spirit while here on earth. And in that body we are given the opportunity to grow in knowledge, love for the Lord, and love for others. We are given this great chance to ready the world for the coming of Jesus a second time. We are afforded the time to make a decision to follow Christ and take joy in this earth He created. He made this world for us, and sin messed it up, but life here is a chance to accept the gift of Jesus that will one day end pain and suffering for us all, that will bring Heaven back to earth.
So, when you kill a baby in its mother’s womb you are robbing a soul of the opportunity to enjoy the gift of Jesus here on earth where they can grow into the knowledge and love of Christ. You’re stealing free will. You’re stealing salvation. You’re cutting off any chance that child would have of carrying out God’s will to make this world a better place until He comes back. You’re desecrating the temple God has placed a spirit within. You’re ripping apart, limb by limb, the body God forms in the womb, and the body He breathes His Spirit of life into. If you believe in Jesus, and you believe in God, you must follow His Word. It’s so clear.
Psalm 139:13-16 ESV
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
When you support a practice that rips a baby from the mother’s body, you support the murder of someone God foreknew, created, placed that spirit into, and planned out an entire, wonderful life for. It’s like you’re ripping pages out of His book for a life.
You may say that it’s not abortion you support, but rather the life of a mother to choose for her own body. I get how that makes you feel better. But you see, it’s like I mentioned before, no circumstance can change the fact that God’s Word states He knows us and forms us. He knew us before the beginning of time (hard to wrap your mind around, I know), and He creates our spirit (which gives us eternal life), and He places that spirit in a human being on a cellular level at conception. Then He gives a woman the opportunity to carry that life to fullness so he/she may fulfill the purpose God has for them. Women have the choice to let that life become complete as God intended, or they can make the choice to end it before it can do all the wonderful things God had in mind. I believe God is so all-knowing that He can work a life beyond the regrettable decisions we make, but who am I to cancel out what He begins? Who am I to not trust that He can work even the most horrendous circumstance into something beautiful? Who am I to think I should be God, that I should decide who gets to live and who cannot? Who are you to decide?
God created us all. He created the women who kill their children unknowingly, and He created you who support that decision. I love you because He created you, but your support of something that places life and death/God power in human hands; I cannot love that. You cannot love that. If you believe in the God of creation then you must follow His Word. You can support women’s rights, social injustice, and all human causes as much as you like. They’re all important because they involve God’s creation. Please, support everything that supports life.
It comes down to this. Like I said above, it’s simple truth. Don’t let other issues cloud you from that truth.
God is Love.
In that Love He creates us.
He creates us in both spirit and body. He places both of those things within our mother’s womb.
He has a plan for each life He creates.
We are not God. How can we cut short the plans He has for another?
My friend, please read these scriptures, pray, and ask God to reveal to you His thoughts on abortion.
You can’t be anti-abortion, yet pro-choice. His Word states we are either for Him or against Him.
I love you, my friend. I love women. I love women in trouble, confused, frightened women who see no way to support their unborn child. I love that God has a plan for us all, and that His Word promises He can work all things for the good of those who love Him. I choose to love, to love life, to love God who creates all life, and who has a plan for each life He creates. I pray you may see this too.
Love,
Your Pro-Life Friend in Christ
Jonathan Cortez says
Brie, yet again than you so much for this. I see all the accusations being thrown my way for being pro-life, and all the excuses of being pro-choice and this is exactly what I’ve wanted to say, what I’ve been saying all along. I choose Life, I choose to trust God knows what He’s doing in everyone’s lives, regardless of they believe in Him or not. And I especially believe He is there for the women and men that choose to end life. Thank you for putting that into words.
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you so much for commenting. I agree with you.
Mary Geddings says
Brie, thank you so much! As always, you have found the most eloquent words to express what is in my deepest heart. I have always been pro-life, but I have never been so heartbroken over abortion, ageism and end of life care as I am today. I’ll be praying for those who read your letter in hopes that they will see the Truth and align their lives with God’s will and His Word! God bless you, Brie!!!
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you so much. God bless you!
Sarah Nave says
Brie, I do not disagree that we are joyfully and wonderfully made so we are all precious. Unfortunately my life experience has given me a view of a woman’s right to choose is just that. Just on a medical stance if a pregnancy is not viable should the mother be forced to carry that child to term only to watch them die agonizingly, painful deaths?
How many abandoned, abused children do you personally know? Me, I grew up living with my mom ( where she worked) in a “children’s home” and I can tell you that it is my firm belief I would prefer these precious babes be in the sweet loving arms of Jesus Christ than here in this world where such horrors befall them .
Incest and rape victims should be forced to carry to term a pregnancy as a result of being violated?
What about the poor mother who already has three children, can’t afford birth control because she has no insurance and there is no more funding for planned parenthood? Forget getting a pap smear of mammogram. Keep her and her children in a cycle of poverty.
Just read elective abortions had decreased in numbers. If we fix the basic issues of society the rest will follow. Employment, education, healthcare, security let’s make this a place safe and welcoming for all the babies.
Jeff Abad says
Thank you for this! You explained it well!
Bethany says
I love this post and am going to share it on my FB page, it is so needed. However, may I point out thing that may not be accurate? I am white. I was passed over for a job for no reason other than the color of my skin. there is an ever-increasing amount of reverse discrimination going on. I know this because several people were interviewed for this position and each applicant was graded. It came down to one other woman and myself. She was offered the job because I was Caucasian and she was not. The day that she was supposed to start, she never showed up, they never heard from her and were unable to contact her. I was offered the job. I learned of this because I became good friends with someone involved in the hiring process. It never bothered me. I worked as hard as I would have had I now known this. I was a social worker and I know that by God’s grace I was able to help a lot of people who needed help. God had His hand in this. But it’s not uncommon for reverse discrimination to take place. The color of someone’s skin means so little to God. It’s beyond sad that it does to others. The attack on the black race in the fight to keep abortion alive is an atrocity.
Lisa Pierce says
What you wrote here is 100 percent truth, no matter which way or how many times you slice it! Thanks for speaking your heart. God has a plan for all His creations.
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you!
Yes, He does!