Wisdom

We were watching Jeopardy tonight in the lifehouse. The show manages to be remarkably engaging, perhaps because of those high-tense moments when everyone watching knows the right answer, but the favored contestant just can’t seem to figure it out. Sometimes I feel like it’s that way with some of the women we council. Under the stress of their lives at the moment, the best choice is obscured, even while those of us in the outside think the answer is obvious.

Such was the case with one of the girls I counseled today, who I’ll call “Marissa.” She has such a store of wisdom within her, yet feels trapped in her current situation. She’s only known she’s been pregnant for a few days, and her immediate instinct was abortion. Recently unemployed, this normally independent woman was forced to turn to welfare. Caught up in the love for her two older children, she’s ready to deny her third. But once she stopped to think about it, once she learned the truth and, in her own words, “opened her mind” to the broader perspective, she recognized that this wasn’t a choice she could make instantly. It needed thought, and prayer. And then she admitted something I thought held so much wisdom: how late at night, even when lying next to her boyfriend, there was a thirst within her that she couldn’t fill. Now, trying to cope with an unplanned pregnancy, she sat in the chapel at the back of the clinic and began to fill that thirst. Somehow, this baby—itself a miracle, since she had thought she was infertile—was bringing its mother to trust and hope in God.

Despite this transformation, “Marissa” is still considering abortion, still struggling to look beyond her current situation. Please pray that this woman, strong and beautiful and wise, is able to hold on to true wisdom, and make the choice that is best for herself and her family.