They asked for a song

I was asked to play some music for the 40 Days for Life kickoff this coming Tuesday. I agreed (ulp) then surveyed the scene when it comes to pro-life songs.

There are some nice pieces out there, but I didn't find a lot that were suited to my voice or my style.

So ...

I decided to start off with "Open the Eyes of My Heart" - explaining that so many people on both sides of the issue need to have their hearts and minds opened to God's loving touch.

For my closing song, I hearkened back to the civil rights movement. Since the pro-life movement IS a civil rights movement, I adapted "We shall overcome" with lines like "We'll pray side by side" and We shall stand for life."

In between, I wrote an original song.

I've been calling it "Just a Choice," though that may not stick.

Here are the words:

3 a.m.
Another night
She’s haunted by
A baby’s cry

In the night
No way to hide
From the emptiness
She feels inside

And all those things
she’d believed
she senses now
she’d been deceived


With a choice
she’s now a mother
who will never
hold her child.

He turns the page
He turns away
The words get lost
In what he can’t say

He’d shown support
He’d gone along
Despite a feeling
That it was wrong

He resents the loss
And that on that day
Society said he
really had no say

Without a choice
He’s now a father
Who will never
Hold his child

Interlude –

We were too young
We were afraid
We were too poor
The time was wrong
It was just a choice
It wasn’t human
It was just cells
It wasn’t alive
It couldn’t feel

It was just a choice
It was just a choice
It was just a choice


Safe within
His mother’s womb
But when she chose
It spelled his doom

He tried to flee
When death came near
He tried to scream
No one could hear

Now he rests
In God’s love
He’s forgiven but
Laments from above

Because of choice
They’re now parents
Who will never
Hold their child

Interlude ….

He wasn’t a choice
He was a child
Who now will never
Be held.

(Now if only the cold I have holds off enough for me to have any voice left!)

Pax et bonum