The Sidewalk...

This weekend I went to Calgary. It's right before exams (Which start tomorrow) and right in the middle of everything else going on in my life, and I was worried before about how everything would work.
On Saturday around supper time, Cairo's mama (Cairo's been my best friend since before kindergarten) was going to a 40 days for life meeting. 40 days for life, for those of you who may not know, if a pro-life organization. A while ago I linked you all to a post I wrote that was published on the 40 days for life Calgary blog. (If you missed reading that, you can check it out Here)
Anyway, Cairo and I decided to go with her to this meeting. I had wanted to go to a meeting for a while, and to be part of this whole 40 days for life thing. So we got into the vehicle and started driving to the place where this meeting would be held, right across the street from the clinic. We arrived there a bit early, and decided to walk across the street to stand on the sidewalks across the way from the clinic and pray.
It was cold, the kind of cold that only January winters in Alberta can bring, but that wasn't why I was shaking inside my thick coat. It was standing on the sidewalk that it all felt so real to me. Everyday, thousands of tiny lives are ended, right inside those doors. And right on the other side of those windows, women walk out forever changed.
I always knew it was real before, but standing on the sidewalk, it was more real then it's ever been for me. I felt my heart aching, for everything that takes place inside those walls. I wanted to cry out and ask God "What are we doing? Why are we, as the country of Canada, and as a nation, doing this?" I didn't do that, but instead prayed silently, for everything that happens inside those walls. I prayed that we would be a nation who sees, and a nation who does. I prayed for every woman who walks in those doors thinking there's no other way, and that she would see hope. And with the absence of words, I simply prayed "Dear God."
We only stayed on the sidewalk for a few minutes, but in those minutes I felt something I'd never felt before, not only having a clearer view of what's going on, but a call to action.

Life is precious, no matter what.