Confession: I like watching TV commercials.

Partly because I’m an actor and I do a lot of commercials, and so it’s kinda like homework to see what the commercial “trends” are.

Some of these trends include: making dads and men seem like dopes or incompetent, ethnically ambiguous “heroes,” the switching of normal gender roles, and co-branding partnership commercials.

And honestly, most commercials are pretty forgettable. Or standard. Or just kind of…boring. Very rarely do I see something that evokes any sort of emotion, other than, say annoyance.

But not yesterday.

I was watching television, and I saw a commercial for Subaru Outback that literally made me say out loud to myself: Wow, way to go Subaru.

Why?

Because it was an unapologetically prolife commercial.

And you can watch it here for yourself.

But basically, it was this couple, and the wife was probably 8 months pregnant. And they were driving to all these beautifully scenic locations: the beach, the forrest, the mountains, countryside. And at every location, the mom would rub her belly, and say “And this, baby, is the ocean. You’ll love it here.” Or she’d say, “There’s so much I want to show you.” It was just so heartwarming, but also so clearly obvious that she was referring to her unborn child as a baby.

Not a fetus. Not a collection of cells. A baby. A life.

It’s no secret that I am staunchly prolife. I’ve written a lot about it before. I mean, it is the clear determining factor in how I cast my ballot.

And yes, the fact that I am Christian has a lot to do with my belief. But also for reasons that might not seem related: I am prolife because of the anorexia in my past.

Here’s the thing: when I was in my disease, I was destroying my life. It’s not like I was flat out saying, I’m trying to die, but the truth of the matter is that my actions were communicating just that. I wasn’t eating. I wouldn’t even drink water. I was compulsively exercising. And I was withdrawing and pushing away all the relationships in my life.

I was living on borrowed time.

All because I didn’t believe I was worth love.

And coming out of that hopeless pit of despair was damn near impossible. It took a full out intervention by my family and close loved ones. And even then, I had to be threatened with drastic legal measures in order to cooperate. Times were dire. I was 78 pounds. It was literally do or die.

After many tantrums, tears, and slammed doors, I finally agreed to a three month stay at an intensive inpatient treatment facility across the country in Arizona.

And though I credit inpatient with keeping me alive and saving my life, it in no way healed my anorexia.

I got out of there as fast as I could just so that I could relapse and get back into my disease. I still wanted my eating disorder.

There was only one thing that truly healed my eating disorder.

And the simple answer, is Jesus. But why? What really does that mean. Because it’s kind of  gross simplification of the actual transformation that took place. And I promise this will all come full circle and loop back to the Subaru Outback. I swear!

My healing came when I finally understood, accepted and embraced that I do in fact have worth.

But not from anything that I did.

Growing up in a family of mega-overachievers, I had always believed that worth was earned. You study hard, you earn a good grade. You practice free throws until you can make it with your eyes closed, thus earning your position as starting point guard. And I liked it that way.

But this time, my worth as a human being did not come from anything I did or didn’t do. Because frankly, we are all way too messed up, and if that were the case we’d all be up a creek without a paddle.

No, my worth came from the mere fact that I was handmade by God. Formed in the womb, and known by name, by voice, by heart, by the number of hair follicles He put there. 

I am a work of art, beautifully designed by the Maker Himself.

And His love for me was made known when He died on the cross…for me. Out of so much love so that we could be together forever in Heaven.

When I finally believed that to be true, I realized that my life is worth something truly great.

My life is worth His death on the Cross.

My life is worth living.

And it was in that moment that I realized that I need to stop killing myself.

I needed to feed and nourish, protect and take care of this incredible gift that is my life.

I was worth life.

So knowing that, who am I to not extend that same worth and value to the life inside a woman’s womb?

A child, growing in the womb is deserving of that same protection as I am. Why? Because he or she was also handcrafted by God. And his or her life was also purchased by Jesus on the Cross.

If I truly love Jesus, then I need to love and protect all lives – from conception to natural death.

It’s that simple.

And seeing Subaru make a public declaration in their commercial that the life inside the mother’s womb was actually a baby – I actually started to tear up a bit.

They get it.

I was so impressed and excited. There’s so much crap out there. Companies going out of their way to bash the president, or make fun of Christianity or morals, or promote things that go against Christian values. And yet we still support them. We still buy their products or download their music. And every time we do that, we’re sending the message that that “BS” that they’re pulling is okay!!

We need to stop that! We need to start supporting brands and people that promote what we believe, and gosh darn it — I’ve never ever wanted a Subaru in my life. I mean I always thought that a prerequisite to owning one was a highly manicured beard, Birkenstock sandals, and an affinity for hatch back station wagons. But dang it I do now!

Let’s start paying attention to what companies are putting out there, and make a conscious vote with our pocketbooks.

Starting with Subaru.

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