By Emily Geinert, 2022 missionary (support crew on Minnesota Route)
Day Two on the Minnesota route was the hardest day of the whole week. We had one rider off his bike due to a stomach illness and another rider overheating very seriously. Our spiritual Enemy was sure laying it on thick. I don’t think I’ve ever said so many St. Michael prayers. As we shared our highs and lows as a team that night, both riders shared how they felt they had failed – they had failed the team, themselves, and the mothers for whom they were riding. The Holy Spirit laid something on my heart like a ton of bricks. Tears filled my eyes as I shared my low of the day – feeling as if I had failed because I couldn’t do more for these riders. We’d each been suffering silently, alone, with feelings of failure. Isn’t that how the Enemy works? Satan loves to separate us and make us feel alone.
I shared with the team, but specifically with those two riders, my moments of feeling like a failure as a mother – the 2ams where nothing you do helps, the times when all you can do is cry with them when they cry and somehow that doesn’t bring consolation. Mothers and fathers in crisis pregnancies are often feeling like they have failed – they feel they have failed to provide what their child will need. They feel that nothing they try and try to do is good enough. Nothing is helping. They are so afraid there seems to be only one answer. In those moments Satan is telling the same lies he was telling our Minnesota route on Day 2. You can’t do it. You’re not strong enough. Look at all the things you’ve thought of and tried – they’ve all failed. You have no other choice. Just give up.
“These are moments we can offer for families in crisis too”, I said. These are some of the most powerful moments we can offer. Biking for Babies missionaries ride hundreds of miles for families in crisis pregnancies, but when it comes down to it, it’s not about the miles. It’s about the prayers and sacrifices that are offered. It’s about getting up at 3am and saying, “yes, I’m going to do this.” It’s about joining our sufferings with those of families who have to make the exact same choices – to get up, to keep going, and to love all along the way.
Satan didn’t have his way that day or that week. Our God is alive. He is still fighting for us and winning battles. Our team was united in our sufferings that night, no longer fighting alone. We were each able to realize that what we were seeing as failure, God was working for good. We were able to speak truth into each other’s days and see what we saw as failure, weakness, and hopeless attempts others saw as something very different.
Families facing difficult pregnancies are searching for that the most – community. Someone to invest in them, truly see and listen to them, walk with them, speak truth into their lives, show them how they aren’t failing, that they don’t have to fight alone. People all around us are crying out for love everyday. Sometimes, most often, they can’t do it verbally. THAT’S WHAT THE PRO-LIFE MISSION IS ALL ABOUT. LOVE. Not forcing someone to make a decision, not blaming them for their actions, not pointing out their failures. Just LOVE. Being pro-life doesn’t have to be hard. Look around you today and love someone in an intentional way – even yourself. It’s not just about the babies. It’s about the mamas and daddys, the grandmas and grandpas, your nextdoor neighbor, the clerk at the grocery store. It’s about ALL LIFE. Pouring out love everywhere we go. Speak truth into someone’s life. Let them know that they’re seen, heard, loved. Let’s pour love on our communities right where we are. Let’s show each other that we’re ready to fight the good fight TOGETHER. Let’s ask the Lord to pour out His love and His peace on our wounded world. And let’s have so much fun as we do it! Jesus, bring us joy!
“When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I’ve often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God – and a terror will rip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there’ll be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world – and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, ‘Spare him, because he loved us!'” – Congressman Henry Hyde
