The Undriven Life—The Christian Difference, Part 8, by Carolyn Cote

The undriven-life is a peaceful though dependent one.

The driven-life can’t be peaceful because it’s rarely at rest because peace comes through activity and activity empowered by your own resources is eventually exhausting.

Following Christ requires discerning His call to act and this discernment is honed by knowing what He values and what He doesn’t value. In John 15:16 Jesus says, “that your fruit should remain.” Use this to begin to decipher what sorts of works are of the eternal kind. Are your works the burnable wood, hay, stubble or are they those which remain: silver, gold and precious stones?

When I designed what Bethesda Pregnancy Services would focus on I looked at “needs.” Since I had decided that the sin of abortion was a byproduct of unmet needs this made perfect sense and it didn’t take too long before our free needs-based approach had many takers– to me, a sure sign of success.

Legally, we were incorporated as a religious organization and in my heart we were doing all this need-meeting in Jesus’ name. It felt Jesus-like to take unwed moms into our home. It felt Jesus-like to make presentations to the local pastor’s association to gain funding for an office space downtown. It felt Jesus-like to teach Y.U.M.I. (Young Unmarried Mothers Instruction) classes to the 15-18-year olds. It felt Jesus-like to recruit many talented volunteers to step up and help in the work. It all seemed very Jesus-ish.

Until.

Until some things began to happen.

Until the fifteen-year olds began showing up with their second pregnancies.

Until the 30-year olds came back into town with a new guy and a new pregnancy.

Until the moms who released their babies for adoption left our homes without God to comfort them in their loss.

We had focused on needs, yes, but not the real need.

We had comforted them but not converted them.

Our fruit had not remained.