Abby Johnson

I had the unique privilege of listening to Abby speak twice today: once at 320 when she joined David Bereit and some twenty of us in prayer, and later at the Focus on Life dinner.

I've come away from listening to her with a renewed appreciation of the need to pray for conversion.

This afternoon at 320, she acknowledged that we get a lot of obscenities thrown at us from hecklers. She reminded us that there are so many hurting and wounded people out there, and they deserve our more fervent prayers. She said it can be hard to respect someone who is employed by the abortion  industry- as she was prior to her conversion- but respect them, continue to demonstrate your peaceful witness to them.

At the dinner, she spoke about the motive for her conversion: watching a child's life get snuffed out in an instant of suction on an ultrasound. Her heart was changed, and she knew she could join David Bereit and the 40Days people that gathered outside her clinic for 8 years because she knew they would treat her with respect, because they had been doing exactly that for 8 years.

We won't get respect for life if we don't exude respect at all times to everyone, even those who hate us and hold us in contempt. Our conversion is the beginning of the end to abortion. Not the 320 employees, not the hecklers-- it starts with you and me and whether we are the most life-loving, people-cherishing, evildoer-respecting people we can possibly be (and we can all work harder at this).

Have you asked the Lord to change your heart this first week of prayer and fasting?
...or are you focused on the splinter in your sibling's eye?