![\"Mary](\"http:\/\/palmquists.glorifyJesus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/one_life_matters_mary-e1545406531350-564x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHer situation was quite unique, because the Child she was graced to carry had chosen this path of suffering, from the foundation of the world. Jesus chose to clothe Himself in tender flesh and blood (even the tenuous condition of a microscopic conceptus), so that He could sacrifice Himself to favor Mary (and all others who would so humbly accept Him) with grace. He chose this path of suffering not through a morbid desire to maximize His personal pain, but “for the joy set before Him,” for the eternal benefit of His offspring like Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Yet in many ways Mary’s situation was not unique. As we have ministered to pregnant women who have been considering abortion over our decades of \nministry, God has graced many of them with the willingness to bear the \nsuffering of an embarrassing (even scandalous) situation — for the joy \nset before them. Every one of the difficulties which led them to the \ndoors of the abortion chamber continued to exist after they made the \nchoice to repent, yet the decision to persevere through that suffering \nleads again and again to an effervescent joy (as we have seen \nrepeatedly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A sullen woman suddenly becomes ecstatic when she \npurposes to suffer through her pregnancy, through God’s grace. Her \nattempt to short-circuit her suffering through abortion could have led \ninstead to an unthinkable path of lifelong self-torture, but her \ndetermination to persevere through suffering leads to a lifelong path of\n joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can that be? Repentance transforms the purposeless \nsuffering of abortion (which cuts short the purpose of her pregnancy) \ninto the purposeful suffering for which every mother’s heart yearns. Yet\n even those who continue on the path to abortion can experience \npurposeful suffering: if they repent, God promises to work it all \ntogether for good (even though the tragic loss of her child was not \ngood). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In modern churches, we may rarely hear the King James \nversion of Matthew 19:14, but Jesus’ command to “suffer little children,\n and forbid them not” carries key significance in this context. The \nessence of the Old English meaning of “suffer” is to “carry or bear” — \nas in “to bear children.” From the moment that sin entered the world, \nbearing children has always involved suffering (with eons of mothers \ntestifying to the joy facilitated through that suffering). The rich \nmeaning of the old word “suffer” even embodies the painful joy a birth \nmother willingly experiences when she surrenders her child to an \nadoptive mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Considering the permeating effect of child \naversion within our culture and congregations today, perhaps it would be\n appropriate for pastors to consider re-issuing the challenge to “suffer\n the children, and forbid them not,” even the when that child is a \nmicroscopic conceptus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pro-life ministry itself is often a life of willful suffering, a cross we willingly bear. When we open our hearts to care deeply for vulnerable mothers and children, we do so knowing that more often than not, our hearts will be broken. Without God’s grace, a hardened, calloused heart would be inevitable for all of us. How can we continue to care, knowing how much it will hurt?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even \nwithin the faithful of our movement, all too often we see hearts become \nhardened toward the mothers, focusing primarily on the suffering of \ntheir innocent children. Other hearts become hardened toward the \nchildren, focusing on the suffering of the mothers. But our suffering \nSavior calls us again and again to let Him transform our hearts of stone\n into hearts of flesh, for both mother and child (and everyone else).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The essential meaning of “Christ-mas” is that we are sent \n(Latin mittere) to share in the suffering of Christ, who suffered for us\n so that He can suffer through us. May you experience the fullness of \nHis joy as you offer yourself as a living sacrifice to Jesus, this \nChristmas and throughout the coming year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake.”
<\/p>(Philippians 1:29)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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