Author, speaker and pro-life advocate J.C. Beichner discusses her book, “Grace in Progress: Prayers for the Beautifully Broken.” J.C. shares her experience with abortion and offers encouragement to those who have suffered through it.
“So many of us hold things in our hearts that we don’t feel that there’s space that we can even talk about with a friend or someone in fellowship,” J.C. says. When she got pregnant as a teenager, she felt like she had nowhere to turn.
“I had an abortion when I was 19 years old, and I didn’t tell anyone,” she says. “It wasn’t until years later that I felt called forward by Jesus to just lay it down and open up about it.” J.C. began the process of becoming Catholic, but feared she wouldn’t be allowed into the faith if she was honest about her past.
While in RCIA, her group was discussing forgiveness, and J.C. realized she no longer wanted to hold her past secret. “ I said I can’t do this anymore. I can’t carry the burden. I need to give this to God. And I spoke up and I’ve been speaking up about it ever since then.”
“It takes a lot of courage to accept the mercy God’s given us and to let him love us. We close ourselves off in our control and our desire to make the boat go a certain way versus stepping out of the boat and trusting Jesus. It’s so interesting, we forget that it’s really just that simple. We’re all going through something and I know we say this a lot and it sometimes can sound cliche, but it’s true.”
Today JC works in youth ministry and The Human Defense Initiative, and encourages others to open their hearts to God’s mercy. Original Air 9-23-19
