“I seen ‘em way before I got to the intersection,” recalled my friend, Jack. “They were on the sidewalk just outside a Starbucks in downtown Chicago, waving iPads as they gestured.” I knew a story was brewing with Jack. There always is.
“Who were they?” I asked, taking Jack’s bait.
“At first, I wasn’t sure. Since I go that way a lot, I figured it was probably an environmental group like Sierra. You see them a lot. Young folks hungry for conversations and contributions—mostly the latter,” Jack chuckled.
“So if it wasn’t Sierra, who was it?”
“The ACLU. That’s who. Advocating to keep abortion legal.”
“So did you engage them or avoid them?”
“Actually, I wanted to yell at ‘em. But that’s already been done—and with little impact. Besides, it didn’t seem consistent with the What would Jesus do? bracelet I still wear.
“Okay, so you didn’t yell, Jack. But what did you say?”
“For a long time, I just listened to the guy who’d cornered me. I wanted him to get the sense that I cared about him as a human—-that I respected him. Everything in me wanted to argue. But honestly, I believe the Holy Spirit was reigning me in.”
“Then what?”
“Then came a pause in the conversation, and he asked me what I thought. I told him I had heard his perspective but was troubled by the medical reality that an unborn child has a beating heart and fingers and fingerprints very early on. To abort such a little one seemed cruel.”
“Any response?”
“He made it clear he was comfortable with the idea of taking the life of an unborn kid. It became obvious we were worlds apart in our thinking, and I knew things were drawing to a close when he stopped showing me stuff on his iPad.”
“So how did it end, Jack?”
“The conversation just naturally came to a close. But here’s the thing”—Jack stuck his finger in my face. “Nobody yelled. In fact, I even complimented the guy. Then we shook hands.”
“Very cool, Jack.”
Very cool, indeed. In a culture that is as polarized as it is poisoned with vitriol, a follower of Jesus had a respectful conversation instead of a shouting match. That sounds quite a bit like something Jesus would do. Way to go, Jack!