Perspectives.

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down to talk with K, who came to me last week because her best friend was having an abortion and she wanted to help her.

When K first approached me, I was overwhelmed and heartbroken over a girl I had never even met, wondering why 15-year-olds have to face these choices and why they do it alone. I didn't know K's friend, and in Washington, starting at age 14, girls can go to have abortions and no one has to know about it. The law protects their right to make that choice--and I felt helpless. I called a few close friends and asked them to pray, and I continued to encourage K.

On Friday, K called me, because despite her conversations with her friend and her appeals to her own mother and the school nurse, the friend proceeded to have the abortion. She had felt like it was her only choice, because she has a 4.0, she wants to go to Harvard, and her parents had told her they would "kick her out of the house if she ever got pregnant." Plus, her boyfriend was encouraging her to go through with it, because for him, it's what you do. He had said to her, "You're going to have an abortion, right? It's no big deal. My sister has had four of them."




So yesterday, K and I sat in a local cafe, talking about how she feels about all of this and how she can continue to be a good and supportive friend. Through the course of the conversation, I realized that the girl we've been talking about and praying for all week is not some empty face--but actually a girl that I'm acquainted with through one of my other teenagers.

My heart dropped to the floor, and I just cried out, "Oh Lord." Suddenly, all of the pain and the fear had a face, and I could see her right in front of me. I again felt heartbroken and helpless.

Is there anything we can do but pray? It seems so minimalistic to say, "Welp, all we can do is pray for her..." when it feels like we should be able to do more.

Or is prayer, in fact, the best thing that anyone can do for her? I have no power to change her ability to choose and make decisions for herself, but I can pray that the Lord would open her heart and provide an opportunity for myself or for somebody to mentor and speak truth into her life...

I was listening to Kutless this morning, and my favorite song for months has been Perspectives...I pray it for this 15-year old this morning:
"It feels like your life’s crashing down all around you,
Let me ask if it’s really so bad.
Look at the world in it’s suffering,
Can you honestly tell me that no one else could understand
All of the hurting inside?
Why can’t you see
Freedom is sometimes just simply another perspective away?
Who could you be
If your lens was changed for a moment?
Would you still be the same?"