So this past time that I was at the abortion clinic...I ended up...being all by my lonesome. For whatever reason, the other usual faces during my hour weren't there. Umm. Yeah, a little awkward. A little bit concerned, I was. And I prayed my Rosary like a paranoid Catholic looking around at least once every decade. But I finally got through with praying a Rosary.
I finished praying my Rosary when I decided to sit down on the sidewalk and contemplate what I should blog about for this week. I even got out my phone and pulled up my blogging app and stared at the blank screen thinking about what to blog about. I think I sat there for a good solid 5-10 minutes. Couldn't think of anything. I just kind of figured that I wouldn't worry about it and blog about it later in the week...
...then I heard him. Something incoherent, but definitely a voice coming up behind me in the lawn-that-must-not-be-trespassed (there's a private property next to the sidewalk across from the abortion clinic). I look behind me. I see an African-American man dressed normal, carrying a plastic bag, and asking me something.
Not gonna lie, I was thrown off for a sec or two because I wasn't expecting someone else to be around because I've been paranoid about looking around and saw no one. He came up closer to me and he kept asking me how much longer this 40 days thing lasted. So I answered him. We have two more weeks.
Then he started going on a spiel about how he doesn't think that praying to end abortion is effective. He says he's Christian and that he reads the Bible. Then he quoted some Bible verses, which may or may not be relevant. He kept going on about "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" ...which I didn't quite make the connection on how that relates to abortion and prayer.
Then he went on about how abortion is bad...but it's okay in the cases of rape or before the baby in the womb looks like a baby. Then he talked about how he knows two methods of abortion: pick and pull (I apologize for that not sounding scientific), and the pill. I didn't bother with trying to enlighten him with the truth about how abortion is morally wrong in all cases since he kept on talking without really allowing me to reply with anything. And besides that, the last thing I wanted to do was to get into any sort of argument with a complete stranger when I'm all by myself.
After talking about abortion, he tangented off with some other spiel about how he always gets stopped by the cops. This was probably instigated because as we were standing there, a cop truck did pass by within a few minutes of him coming up to talk to me. The policemen in the truck had their flashlights on. And I haven't mentioned this yet, but there was a helicopter circling around the general area for a while. I guess they were looking for someone.
Anyway, he gave some sort of back story that I couldn't quite follow since he was talking kind of fast and slightly incoherently. I think, if I understood him correctly, he was a truck driver for a while and lived in Florida before coming to Texas, where he talked about some specific examples of why he was stopped by police. He went on about that for a while.
Maybe like...10-15 minutes of listening to him, another 40 Days for Life person showed up (praise God!). That's when the homeless man left. It was at that point that I asked him what his name was--Frank.
So, he went walking off after the other 40 Days for Life guy showed up. He did come back before I left but didn't stop to talk to any of us.
Not gonna lie, when he first showed up I was a little freaked out because I didn't know what he would do or say. But after listening to him for a bit, I decided he was not going to hurt me. I figured he just wanted someone to listen to him, and lending my ear was no problem at all. He didn't ask for anything. He just...talked. A lot. Animatedly, too.
I just think it's cool that...I was just sitting there wondering what to blog about for this week's blog post and BAM! ...he shows up. I guess I asked and then received, haha.
But I ask that you please pray for Frank! For whatever reason, he has no home. Pray that the very least that anyone he encounters can do is to give him his dignity and help him. And also pray for him in regards to his views on the sanctity of life. The fullness of truth demands that human life is precious no matter the method of conception.
Here's to two more weeks of 40 Days for Life!
- JD
Last year, I wrote an open letter to my spiritually adopted baby. Click here to read.
