I recently watched the documentary, “Unplanned”. The feature film version of this story will be premiering March 29th. I urge you all to go see it. If it is true to the original story, you will experience something very powerful.
If you are not familiar with this story, I will give you a little background. It is the tale of Abby Johnson. Abby found herself as a volunteer for Planned Parenthood in the town of College Station, Texas while she was a student at Texas A&M University. She had had an abortion and she had come to the belief that she was helping women by working at Planned Parenthood. Over a period of time, she rose through the ranks of the organization until she was made director of the clinic in College Station.
Her position put her at odds with her parents and her fiance’ but her commitment to PP persisted. One day she was asked to help out with an abortion using ultrasound guidance. For the first time, she saw what was actually happening during an abortion procedure. And it changed everything. She left her position at PP and walked across the street to where the fledgling organization, 40 Days for Life, had its offices. 40 Days was in its infancy then but now it has grown into a worldwide pro-life force that organizes volunteers to pray outside abortion clinics. With Abby’s help as a spokesperson, the effort has resulted in thousands of saved lives and the closing of hundreds of abortion clinics.
But the part of the story that is amazing is how the groundwork was laid for Abby’s conversion. You see it was not demonstrators screaming at her, or calling her baby killer as she went to work at PP every day. It was not someone reciting the facts about when life begins or how soon baby’s develop in the womb.
It was the action of one prayer volunteer. It was a young woman who said hello to Abby every morning. How she told her to have a good day. And it was how, one day, she laid a bouquet of flowers in the driveway in front of where Abby drove in each day. And it was how a small card was placed within the bouquet that had a verse from Psalms about life written on it.
When Abby was at her lowest point, grief stricken over the thousands of lost lives that she had a hand in, she saw the card from those flowers and then knew how much God loved her…in spite of what she had done. She walked out of that clinic that day seeking the prayer volunteer who had shown her friendship and love…even at the time when Abby was the “enemy”. If anyone deserved to be hated for what they had done, it was Abby. If there was ever someone who had earned to have anger directed her way, it was Abby.
But it was not to be. It was love and kindness that won the day. It was the caring, especially of that one person, that brought Abby back from the brink. And, yes, the result was a soldier for the Pro-Life cause. But, more importantly, it helped Abby turn her back on sin. On Satan. It won back her soul. And that is everything.
So when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, and we think, “No way can I love that person. They are rude, irritating, they don’t support the right candidate, they have the wrong religion, they lie, they drink, they….” Well, I am sure we can all fill in that blank fairly easily. But if the Lord can love an Abby Johnson and bring her home. I am guessing we can too. With a little help from Him.
