What Wouldn’t You Do: a missionary’s reflection

 

That is the question I was confronted with this past winter when I learned about Biking for Babies. Biking for Babies is an organization that started as a grassroots effort by two guys who wanted to do something impactful for their local pregnancy resource center. It’s grown into a national event of young adults across the country who want to do the same and who want to show women facing unplanned pregnancies that there there are hordes of people desperate to help them.

 

My mom sent me a flyer about Biking for Babies with the note “you should do this!” I pulled up their website and saw it was months of intense training culminating in a 600-mile bike ride over 6 days. I was like, “Mom, you obviously didn’t even read what this is…” (And I was right, she hadn’t!)

 

It sounded awesome, for someone who was into endurance athleticism and intense physical fitness, but I knew this wasn’t for me. At all.

 

My mind filled with a million reasons to not give it a second thought: I barely even exercise and I don’t even own a bike. I couldn’t be more unqualified or ill-equipped for something like this. I’m working full-time and have a million things going on in my non-work time. I certainly don’t have the time for something like this. That training program would disrupt my whole life. Physically, it sounds brutal. I don’t even know if I can do that physically. Too intense, too scary, too out of my comfort zone, too overwhelming. Way too much of an ask of me.

 

And then I saw a missionary’s testimony on their Instagram page that made me realize: my stream of thoughts and fears were a glimpse into the mind of a woman in an unplanned pregnancy. If I would want her to move forward and say “yes” despite all those reasons, I had to be willing to do that too.

 

Even then, I was considering a way out. I was thinking,“Yes, I need to do more to help women in these situations, but I’ll do it through something else. This is a bit extreme.”

 

And then I thought of my nephews Ambrose and Augustine, my niece Maria, and my twin nieces or nephews we lost in miscarriage, Gabriel and Raphael.

 

Would I do something this crazy for them? Would I spend the next 5 months killing myself for them? Would I find a way to get myself ready for this 600-mile undertaking if it could have helped them …Is there anything I wouldn’t do to help them? No. Literally nothing.

 

So I dove in. I started training. For them. For children like them. For all the other little Ambroses, Augustines, Marias, Gabriels, and Raphaels out there, who have just as much beauty and worth as my beloved little ones. Who just need people to step up and help their parents pave a way to bring them into the world.

 

Though I may not ever know the babies I’m riding for personally, as Mother Teresa says, we all belong to each other. I can and must do what I would do for my precious little nieces and nephews for other little babies.

 

I remember seeing a tweet one time that said something to the effect of “pro-lifers don’t REALLY believe that these are babies either, because if they did….. how do you stay at home? How would you even go about your day? Thinking babies are just being killed down the street all day every day? Why aren’t you protesting every day? See, they obviously don’t really believe this.”

 

That person had a point, at least for me. I do absolutely believe it, but I had grown a bit numb and hopeless to it all, as I’ve watched the world and even people I love embrace and defend practices that end little lives.

 

This tweet woke me up.

 

How can I just be going on with my life, going out to dinner, going to work, watching TV, doing nothing… if I really believe innocent little lives are being snuffed out down the street every day? If I really believe that, then the only possible response is to do something radical to try and change it. To do anything I can, if there is even a chance it would make a difference. Something like going from a couch potato to a 600-mile biker within a couple of months.

 

Biking for Babies has given me a way to move closer toward the person I want to be, who would do anything she can to help save a little life.