What speaks louder?

Ms. Johnson had worked for Planned Parenthood for years, eventually becoming director of the clinic.  One day, while helping during an ultrasound-guided abortion, she witnessed the end of life.  Witnessing it with her own eyes was the day of her conversion.  She quit her job and joined the Coalition for Life.  It’s an amazing and emotional story.  But what struck me most was that the Coalition for Life had, for years, loved and prayed for her.  It was this love and these prayers that guided her eventual change of heart.  Had they been angry, violently standing up for what was right, she likely would have shut them out.  But their love in the face of her opposition was remarkable.  True charity.

Charity doesn’t mean you don’t stand up for what is right.  But we must be wise in the words we choose and the way we choose to say them.  Those Coalition for Life volunteers praying at the abortion clinic— just praying, not debating, or arguing, or accusing— spoke clearly.  They spoke not just opposition to abortion, but also love for all that walked through the clinic doors—love for the unborn child, women in crisis pregnancies, as well as and those that worked at the clinic.  This surely is what Christ was speaking of in his call to love and prayer.

So here is Christ’s challenge to us all:  Pray for those who persecute us.  Say I love you anyway and will be there if you need help.  Can we demonstrate the love of Christ in such a way that, in spite of opposition, our actions stop people in their tracks and make them wonder at our love?  What feeds this love, what motivates this love?  I have a feeling that this love will inspire more conversions of heart than anything else we can do.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/charity-in-the-face-of-oposition