Risk. Love. Loss. Christ.

God’s omniscience notwithstanding, He took a risk—a big risk—in His loving act of creating man in His own image. Adam was a being with moral agency. So complete was this being’s autonomy, he carried the ability to say “NO” to his Creator.

To love is to risk. To love is a choice to be in a relationship with the distinct possibility of a loss of fellowship. To love is to invest yourself for the benefit of another without a guarantee of reciprocation. To love is to create a place for another in your life with the distinct possibility that space will be abused, rejected, ridiculed, even despised. To love is to believe in the inherent value of the other and sacrifice solely for their benefit.

To love much is to be willing to suffer much, be disappointed, even to despair. To love is to open oneself to a child, physical or spiritual, and help them on their journey to become and do all God intended for them. To love is to be a mother or a father. To love is to choose to sacrifice your time, resources, voice, reputation, and comfort for the good of another. To love is to be a Good Samaritan—taking radical responsibility for your neighbor, whoever that may be on life’s dangerous Jericho Road. To love is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, revealed in Scripture as the “radiance of [God’s] glory and exact representation of His nature” (Heb. 1:3). And that in a fallen and sinful world.

One whose love looks this way learned it first as a recipient. “We love, because [God] first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). As pro-life Christians, we ask women to love their preborn boy or girl this way. But in so doing, we first must walk out that commitment in our personal lives. We do this in tangible sacrificial ways in support of her through CompassCare.

Those who are willing to love like God are empowered to do so by the Holy Spirit, Who often provides special insight into those whom He seeks to love through them.

If you have walked with God any length of time, you know that love always finds application. The Holy Spirit sometimes gives us a glimpse into another, not to harm them, but to help them. God enlightens us of another’s weakness, not to exploit them, but to strengthen them. He gives us clarity into another’s struggles, not to disparage, but to encourage. God gives understanding of a person’s failures not to flaunt but to demonstrate the power of forgiveness. God gives insight into another’s blind spot, not to mock or manipulate, but to provide light.Scripture calls this “speaking the truth in love.” The purpose is so that “we…grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” (Eph. 4:15). “Speaking the truth in love” is not easy, but as Scripture says, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:11). 

The older I get, I find fewer people willing to tell me the truth about myself as they see it—not for their benefit but for mine. Somehow, I doubt it is because I’m so perfect.

CompassCare’s Patient Services team takes the risk, sacrificing and speaking the truth in love to women every day in America’s abortion headquarters and all across the U.S. because they have been trained by their loving heavenly Father. And however that training came, they learned the lessons well, as you can see in the scores of stories from the exam room.

It is not a secret that over the years God has given CompassCare big, risky ideas to speak the truth in love, saving more lives. And with those risky notions, God provided the approach, the pluck, and the resources to put flesh on the bones. And along with providing ethical medical care and the Gospel to help women considering abortion have their babies, we must make our communities more pro-life. This requires speaking the truth in love to each other, too.

Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, died recently. In one of his last interviews, he said, “We have got to be salt and light in a dark and stormy culture.” And while he was saying these things, in the background are running pictures of the firebombing of CompassCare. Dobson went on, “When people, especially pastors, say to me, ‘Well, we don’t get into that because we’re not political,’ they’re bragging about not being political. It’s not political. It’s moral. We’re talking about killing babies…”

Supporters of CompassCare and other truly pro-life education and service efforts are the vanguard of American Christianity, because at over 40 million per year globally, abortion represents the greatest crime against humanity in history. Because to love is to speak and act on behalf of the oppressed, weak, and vulnerable, as Jesus did for broken sinners like me.

Because, the heart of God is for His people to manifest His heart by protecting children from harm (Ex. 21:22-23; Mk. 9:37) and in so doing “let justice roll down like waters” (Am. 5:22a). If Christians refuse the duty and risk of being the moral anchor of society with our words and actions (Am. 5:13), for whom justice has been turned to wormwood (Am. 6:12), even the songs we presume to sing in praise to God, He will consider as heaven’s noise pollution (Am. 5:23). Praise the LORD for His people, who as recipients of His great love in Christ, are willing and able to stand on the truth of what it means to be human under God in word and deed. And in so doing, you’ve become conduits of His love to thousands of pregnant women and babies every year and millions of Americans through CompassCare’s education efforts nationwide. Through CompassCare, you provide the Lion’s share of pro-life medical care to women in the abortion capital of America: New York!

Give hope and a future to a woman and her baby for just $47 per month. Every gift earmarked for NYC expansion will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling your life-saving impact. www.compasscarecommunity.com/donate!