Sometimes I stand on my porch before bed and take in the sight of a thousand city lights twinkling against the night sky, and I’m struck by the overwhelming number of people outside my door who are living in darkness. People who are trapped by lies – lies about who they are and who God is and what is right and wrong. Lies that bring about death for nearly three hundred babies every day in our country.
I think about how our culture celebrates the dismembering and decapitating of God’s tiniest image-bearers by euphemizing abortion with terms like “healthcare” and “clumps of cells,” and how our hospitals have become centers for killing instead of saving.
During such moments, I’m reminded of the reason I came here in the first place.
Common cause
I first moved to Mississauga three years ago to do a summer internship with the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR), an educational pro-life organization working to make abortion unthinkable. My internship with CCBR were the best months of my twenty-three years.
Some days were sweltering hot and we got $1 ice cream cones at McDonald’s during our breaks, other days we shivered in the rain and laughed at the colorful ponchos some of us wore to stay dry. Every day, we saw people change their minds on abortion through our outreach projects. That summer changed my life, and this year will be the fourth internship I’ve been part of, now as a full-time staff member at CCBR. I’m still here because babies are still being killed, and minds need to keep being changed in order to save lives.
Hitting the streets four days a week to reach the people of the Toronto area with the truth about abortion is challenging work, but there is nothing else like it. You get so close to people when you are fighting darkness together, and you grow so much when you are pushed out of your comfort zone. Best of all, there is the indescribable joy of hearing stories of children who are alive today because of this work.
A quiet crisis
Isn’t it strange how we so easily forget about the darkness all around us? Death is celebrated, tiny heartbeats are stopped, skulls are crushed. Meanwhile, we go to school and church and family get-togethers and almost never have to think about abortion.
When I look across the city I live in and am reminded of the depth of evil in our country, it is easier to turn around and walk back into my cozy house and ignore it. But I must not, and I beg you not to either. Babies are being killed in our cities, and we have the ability to take meaningful action to stop this bloodshed.
One of my favorite Tolkien quotes is from The Lord of the Rings: “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
There is much to be done. Jesus commands us to be salt and light in this hurting world. Let us not grow weary in doing good. Let us be willing to sacrifice much to rescue these children from death. Let us be bold in truth and unwavering in love, knowing that our labor is not in vain. Let us work and pray, pushing back the darkness and eagerly awaiting the day when Christ returns to bring about perfect justice!
Miranda King works for the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, a dynamic pro-life group working to end the ongoing slaughter of 300 unborn Canadian children that happens every day in our country. And they are offering a unique Summer Job opportunity, to come help them in this fight. You can learn more about this paid position at www.endthekilling.ca/internships. Deadline to apply is March 15th. (Picture courtesy of CCBR)