By Dave Andrusko
Editor’s note. My family and I will be on our vacation through September 7. I will occasionally add new items but for the most part we will repost “the best of the best” — the stories our readers have told us they especially liked.
Like so many other pro-lifers from around the nation, I am in Kansas City, Kansas at the opening day of NRLC 2018, our Movement’s preeminent educational gathering. As such I am scrambling to post stores as time permits, meaning various stories may appear out of chronological order for a variety of reasons.
The post after this one will talk about an immensely emotional, powerful general session on “The Human Face of Abortion.” There were three abortion survivors. As they say, you could have heard a pin drop.
Introducing the panel, so to speak, was a video that just gripped my heart, and I’m guessing everyone else’s. It’s titled “This Time,” by John Elefante, the former lead singer of the group “Kansas.”
The inspiration was the real-life story of Sami, Elefante’s adopted daughter, whose 13-year-old mother came perilously close to aborting Sami.
“I can’t imagine life without my daughter, Sami, and it just breaks my heart that pregnant young women much like her birth mother, instead of choosing life for their babies, are denying them the chance to be born,” Elefante once told Abby Carr of Charisma News. “If our song can in any way bring attention to this issue and encourage those who are considering abortion to choose life through options such as adoption, then we couldn’t be happier.”
So, why is “This Time” so effective?
For starters, Elefante does a marvelous job setting a real-life stage: a very frightened (barely) teenage girl who discovers she is pregnant. Scared out of her wits, she slams the bathroom door on her mother and races to the “solution”: the abortion clinic.
When a girl or woman is at the abortion clinic—let alone in the operating room itself—the pressure to “get this over with” is unfathomable. In this case, the young girl is half-asleep in the waiting room and dreams of being with the little girl she is carrying and about to abort.
It would likely take something as powerful as a “picture” in her mind’s eye to convince her that abortion is desperately wrong. The staff is shown restraining her from leaving, which is not uncommon. “We see this all the time,” so, to them, this is just routine, last-minute panic.
But Sami’s 13-year-old mother does make it to the phone to call for her own mother. The last scene is her mother arriving to take her home.
The music, as you would expect from a multiple-Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, is just tremendous. The lyrics tell the story of why she ran to the abortion clinic….and why she chose life. (I will not spoil the delight you will experience by quoting the refrain that makes your heart soar.)
But, on second thought, I will offer one “spoiler.” As the young girl sneaks out to leave, she is joined, in her imagination, by her baby, now at age 6 or 7. When they run down the hall, I just choked up. Mom and baby, racing to escape the death peddlers…together!
Take four minutes out of your busy day and watch “This Time.” Believe me you’ll be forwarding this video to all your friends and family.
PS Watch the video and then watch it again as you read the lyrics reproduced below.
THIS TIME LYRICS
She sat cold in a waiting room
Frightened and all alone
Watched the clock tick down
Knowing that her baby would soon be gone
Her head slung low, so embarrassed
She was 13 years old
She felt a kick inside as a reminder
Of a life she couldn’t show
Then she heard a voice inside say “Run away!
It was a mistake, but don’t throw your child away!”
Then she fell into a light sleep
Had a dream about a little girl
There was a birthday cake and three candles
She was living in another world
She saw the little girl become a woman
Living in a happy home
Then she was suddenly awakened
By a voice that called her name
They said, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine
You’re still young, we see this all the time.”
Right then the Lord began to speak:
“You’re not taking this one! She’s Mine!
She’ll grow up and seek My name
You’re not taking her! She’s Mine!
And you’re not taking her this time
No, you’re not taking her this time.”
She laid flat on the table
She asked “Please, can I talk to someone?”
But a headstrong woman with a blank stare
Said “We’ve gotta get this done.”
Then she cried out, “Lord, please help me!
I’ve got to get to a phone!
I need to call my momma
To help me find my baby a home!”
They said, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine
You’re still young, we see this all the time.”
Right then the Lord began to speak:
“You’re not taking this one! She’s Mine!
She’ll grow up to seek My name
You’re not taking her this time