I was at a coffee shop waiting for a friend. As I lazily sipped away my coffee, I couldn’t help overhearing a passionate conversation between two young women that were seated adjacent to me. Olivia, a young lady in her 30s was complaining about her troubled marriage to her friend Spe. She did not know what to do. Moreover, she was expecting an unplanned baby.
“Why is life so hard?” She lamented, “I need answers. My career is going really well, but the thing that matters most – my family, seems to be falling apart!”
“Why do you allow yourself to be so stressed when you are so young?” Her friend replied, “You have everything going for you, your thriving career, your unfading beauty and brains etc. Why should you allow your husband to spoil that for you? Step one, I will take you to a clinic that will help you get rid of the embryo you are carrying. Step two, I will call a very good lawyer friend of mine and you can file for divorce easily.”
“Eeeeh, not so fast girl, and not so radical! You know I believe in the sanctity and sacredness of life. How can you imagine that I could go for an abortion or divorce just like that?” Olivia said “I only take steps that the Holy Spirit leads me to. I am not my own. Spe sighed in boredom.
I pretended to be busy on my phone, as I eavesdropped some more. As I listened, I was reminded of a passage that I had read that morning from Acts 4:1-2, 19;
Vs.1-2…Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them. 19….But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.
Despite his knowledge of the danger surrounding his stand, Peter fearlessly defended his beliefs in front of those that would arrest him. What gave him that boldness and power? The precious Holy Spirit! Before being empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter was a timid man that had denied Christ because of the threats from mere people around him. But after the Holy Spirit came down, he was ready to die for what he believed!
My thoughts then took me to the ‘controversial’ Life Skills’ Summit that we were organizing for 2,000 Secondary School Student Leaders . Ooh how I need the Holy Spirit for this project!
My reverie was interrupted by my ever-late friend, Vivian. Whispering, so the young ladies would not hear, I didn’t waste any time in bringing her up to speed concerning the conversation I had just heard. Just as I was putting a full stop to my last sentence, Spe said to Olivia, “Don’t tell me that you are pro-life! That you believe an unborn baby is a full human being? You’re barely three months pregnant, that is not a baby, those are just cells, just a zygote.”
With tears in her eyes, Olivia said, “I am pro-life indeed. I believe that God is the author of life and that life begins at conception.”
Vivian and I silently sipped on our coffee and listened to the conversation.
“I don’t agree with the pro-choice argument Spe. I don’t believe that an embryo in the womb is just a mass of fetal tissue like it is claimed. The fact that an embryo cannot support itself, doesn’t mean that isn’t fully human – deserving protection,” Olivia continued passionately and boldly. Olivia quoted Abby Johnson, a pro-life activists who once said, ‘I have a life-long mission of bringing about a paradigm shift in pro-life/pro-choice debate’. She went on to say that she believed her marriage would change for the better. Spe looked at her with cynicism.
Olivia got her phone and searched for Dr. Antony Levatino, a former abortionist and pro-choice person who had turned pro-life. She held her phone so Spe so she could watch the video of the doctor denouncing abortion. We also positioned ourselves comfortably to learn more from the doctor, while pretending to hold our own conversation behind their backs.
Dr. Levatino had proved that most arguments for the need of abortion for medical reasons were lies. He also said, “A case against abortion is supported soundly by biological, scientific and religious reasons. Also, the fundamental documents and declarations of independence of most countries promote justice and equality of all humans, including the unborn ones”.
I was greatly encouraged by what Olivia said. Like Peter, she stood her ground, choosing to believe what was right, and risking the disdain of her friend. I knew that what had emboldened her to speak and not to cower was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us live right and to stick to our value and beliefs.
The time for us to leave came and as we walked away I expressed my gratitude to God that I had received the encouragement I needed to defend what I believe much more aggressively. “It always gets better when the Holy Spirit backs you! See how He set us for encouragement this morning” Vivian said.
I invited my friend for a prayer meeting we had organized and we prayed that the Holy Spirit would always go ahead of us and empower us in our work of defending the vulnerable. I also invited her to the values-based Life Skills’ Summit that was to happen soon. She agreed to both requests and we parted ways.
I drove away, praying that I would always, daily, solicit the power of the Holy Spirit for any life assignment.
They that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God!
Encouragement came from unlikely places.