Sharp, professional, business owner, and single mom…all those words describe her today – those words and much more. But that is not who she was the first time she walked through our doors. At that time she was living on the street. She was addicted and desperate. Prostituting herself to support her habit, she was a victim of her own past and the series of bad choices she had made. She was a lost cause if ever there was one.
How could a story like that get any worse? She was pregnant. She simply could not, should not, have a baby. A friend brought her to our door because she was looking for hope, and that is what our sign said, “Hope Women’s Centers“.
Fortunately, we don’t counsel from our own wisdom or experience. We are bound to a God who offers hope in every single circumstance. We are prisoners of this hope and cannot run from that truth even when it seems that hope is lost or surely misplaced. This client seemed very lost and misplaced, but God gave us the gift of being part of His plan for her life. Unseen realities and whispered potentials all live within our walls and reside within our spirits. There is a God who assures us of that hope, and that hope is found in Christ alone.
We didn’t hold on to a hope that this woman could ‘pull herself up by her bootstraps.’ We didn’t think that we could deliver her from her circumstances. We didn’t put our faith in a 12-step program. We didn’t even dare to hope that everything would “turn out okay”, because we knew that bad things happen in this real life reality show. We had to put our hope in Christ alone.
There are many examples in the New Testament of Jesus meeting the present need. One example is found in Luke 7:37-50. The woman in that story was a mess! She had a very present need to draw water for her family, and that is why she was at the well that day. She had no idea she was going to meet Jesus. She had no idea that one chance meeting would change her life forever.
Neither did the woman who walked into Hope Women’s Centers that day. She, too, had a very present need to escape the lifestyle she was living. After much discussion with her counselor and many, many phone calls to various agencies, she left the area to go to a drug treatment center. We prayed for God to protect the child she carried, not knowing if we would ever see her again.
Months later she came in – clean, sober, and beautifully pregnant! God had done an amazing work in her life. He had prepared her heart to take in the truth of His unconditional love for her. She invited Christ to take control of her life, and has been growing in her commitment to Him ever since that day. He calmed her fears and proved His faithfulness to her by giving her a beautiful, healthy baby. She was starting to understand His amazing grace, and she is learning how to be a good mother to her child.
The drama that happens inside pregnancy medical clinics all across our nation is like a reality show. We could title it “Lost Causes”. At Hope Women’s Centers we celebrate the fact that we serve a God who specializes in lost causes and that He allows us to watch Him work to turn lost causes into beautiful creations.
The only way we can offer hope, share truth, and protect life when these “lost causes” come through our doors is to completely depend upon God. He is the provider of unlimited hope, and He is the one who gives us the grace to understand and receive that truth. Because of that, the description in the first paragraph of this story describes who this client has become! If you met her, you would never connect her to the woman who first visited us on that long ago day.
Another woman will walk through the door at any moment. It may be someone who is lost and afraid. She may be addicted and living on the street. She might be pregnant and looking for an abortion. Not even knowing what she is looking for, she will find it here. We offer hope because the God we serve is still at work. We share truth because she needs to have medical facts to make an informed choice. We protect life because we know the Creator of life and we believe He has a plan for each and every one.
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