Reality vs. Emotions

I would like to start off with a true story:

Recently I had a customer at work that disputed the balance due on one of her orders. She had two orders, one was for a slab, the other was for tile. Her contractor had picked it all up, but she had a balance due still. She didn't want to pay the balance due that the computer was showing. In fact she said we owed her! I said that wasn't true, and I would contact our accounting department and speak to my manager to get this figured out. Accounting did an audit on her account to show her payments, how they were applied, and how we got to the balance due showing on her order. Even after we submitted to her the facts and figures in black and white she STLL disputed the balance due! She wrote back with her own version of the order and the payments. As I looked over her version I saw she had changed the tax due on the slab order.

A little background, our slab driver was sick and her slab wasn't transferred down to Orange County from L.A. on the day it was supposed to. I tried calling the contractor (his voicemail was full and I couldn't leave a message) and I called her, as well as emailed when I couldn't reach her. I wasn't able to get a hold of them in time, and the contractor sent his driver over to pick up anyways. Then the driver told me he was going to L.A. to pick up the slab. I called her, letting her know there was a tax difference of about $15 and I needed her to pay that tax if he was picking up over there. She asked if I could remove the L.A. tax charge, because the slab should have been in the OC. I said I couldn't remove that tax, but I could reduce her tile order by $15. Basically giving her a percentage off her tile price to bring her total down by $15.

Well, when she sent "her version" of what was due she showed OC tax on the slab order. And then she showed the payment of $15 (charged to her credit card already) as a payment toward her tile order. And THEN she also entered another line as -$15, under the total amount on her tile order. I said I would adjust the amount off her order to offset that charge, and I had already! So, she in essence triple dipped! She lowered the tax due by $15 on the slab order, she applied the $15 charge to her tile order, and then she showed that we should be subtracting her tile order by another $15!  At least she showed that she owed us some money, instead of insisting we owed her, but I was showing she owed $117 and she was wanting another $30 on top of the $15 I gave her.

When I pointed these discrepancies out she wrote back with an argument that her driver had to go to L.A., when her slab should have been in OC, and that he had to wait 2 hours for our guys to come back from lunch, and then another 2 hours for his truck to be loaded, and then had to sit in traffic at 3pm returning from L.A. to the OC. Well, this is not a dispute about charges at this point, this is a "feeling" of her's that she "shouldn't have to" pay the L.A. tax. Basically saying that the time it took, and the gas money, was worth more than the original discount I offered of $15, and therefore was not good enough.

At this point I finally understood her argument against the charges and I went to my manager to get the approval to reduce her order once again, by another $30, to get this taken care of. Which he gladly did. I mean, come on, it's only $117 due... and she is going back and forth with me over a measly $30. It was not worth any more of my time or energy to argue with her. She wasn't right, she did owe us $117, but for customer service sake we reduced her charges to make her happy. Once I offered to do that reduction she paid the revised balance. (Phew! Finally, that was over with!)

Why did I share this story? Because it made me realize something about truth, or reality, verses our emotions and the emotional arguments made by pro-choice people.

I am part of a group called LIFE Runners. We support local pregnancy crisis centers all over the USA and in other countries. We wear shirts (as pictured above) when we run, walk, or go on errands around town, to raise awareness or spark up a conversation. We are pro-life. We help women in those tough moments, when they don't know what to do. Women caught in an unexpected pregnancy who need our help. And we support centers that offer counseling to post-abortive women who are dealing with feelings of remorse and regret. LIFE Runners offers a pro-life response that is compassionate. Yet when I post on Facebook about their or my pro-life activities, I often hear reasons why a person is pro-choice. Sometimes the reaction to my posts on FB are angry responses.

The responses and arguments made are like that woman's response to the facts I presented her about her order. Her argument was based on her emotions, not on fact. In the world of retail the "customer is always right." And businesses bend over backwards to smooth things over with upset clients. Even if they are wrong, it doesn't matter. We validate their feelings by giving them discounts, or freebies, or services they may not even truly deserve. But that is retail.

The issue here, regarding abortion, is that we aren't dealing with "a measly $30" or the authority of a manager in a store. We are dealing with the authority of God, and the life of a human being. And God doesn't not bend to our will and desires to make us feel better. He is our creator. He gives life, and He takes it away. That is His right, and His alone. Yes, sometimes abortion happens naturally. A miscarriage may happen, or a spontaneous abortion. Even still births, which are tragic and devastating, happen at times. Doctors may not even be able to tell the Mother why it happened! Women are left heart broken. Husband and wives weep and mourn. But God is ultimately in control, and we are left to decide if we are going to continue to trust Him, or be bitter about what He allowed to happen.

Why do I give God ultimate authority? See the verse below:

      For thus says the Lord,

Who created the heavens,

Who is God,

Who formed the earth and made it,

Who has established it,

Who did not create it in vain,

Who formed it to be inhabited:

“I am the Lord, and there is no other."

- Isaiah 45:18

I can give you my sympathy. I can love you. I can cry with you. I can hurt with you. I can agree that life is unfair. But I can never agree that giving a woman an abortion is okay. Because its not my right, or your right, to make that choice. To decide the value of that baby's future, or to put the value of your life ahead of theirs, is not okay. The ending of one life, to make the life of another easier or simpler is not okay. Saying its a woman's right to choose, because it's her body being affected, is not okay. Saying the child has a deformity or has Down Syndrome does not mean that we can see the future of their quality of life, or that the value of their life is less than a fully developed baby or a baby without a disability. Those are not reasons to end their life before it even started. That is not okay. The age of the mother, the way in which she became pregnant, the financial circumstances, the difficulties that the child may face in life, the emotional pleas that you present, are not reasons for abortion. They do not justify choosing abortion.  

Even the less emotional, narcissistic pro-choice/ feminist argument that this is HER body and HER choice whether or not to endure the "devastation to a woman's body" that happens due to pregnancy is not a justification. You don't want stretch marks? Use cocoa butter. Buy a cream after pregnancy that reduces the appearance of stretch marks. Get laser surgery. You don't want to feel the pains of labor? Get an epidural. You don't want your vagina to be "ruined" by a vaginal birth? Find a Doctor willing to perform a C-section. They exist. You will be able to find one. I have little compassion for this argument, if you can't tell. This is the ultimate selfish response to becoming pregnant. Why don't you stop having sex then until you are ready? How about that as a choice?

There are many more scenarios that are emotional pulling, and would break my heart to hear. I am sure of that. But no matter how emotional or how devastating one thinks a situation is, I know my God is bigger than all of that. I know He loves you, me, and any woman that is facing an unexpected pregnancy. I know that any child born into difficult circumstances or facing disabilities is loved by God. I know their life has as much value as mine, or as any other child. You could search the internet for stories all night long for testimonies that say as much, by adults that were supposed to be aborted. Stories of children with disabilities that overcame their challenges. 

If a woman decides that raising her child isn't for her, then she can choose adoption. And she can even select her baby's future parents! Abortion is not the answer. And I will never be able to agree, in any circumstance, that it is. My God is bigger than that. And He is the ultimate authority. 

#AllinChristforProLife #LIFErunners #ProLifeisProLove