BLOG PASSWORD: elliewr
We slowly walk up the black metal stairs.
It is our third night going to love and build relationships with women in the DBs (dance bars), and I am in no way comfortable or eager for this type of ministry.
After praying and feeling the Spirit’s tug toward a DB named Tequila, we climb the stairs that lead to a world of darkness, imprisonment, addiction, depravity, hopelessness, lust, and pain.
Some men are leaving as we are entering. I look down, not wanting to look them in the eye in fear of reading the thoughts I know are in their lust filled minds. I examine the three pairs of shiny leather dress shoes that confidently march by my own broken and dirty sandals. I don’t care to even acknowledge the men whose shoes these are.
We spread out, sit down, and order some drinks.
I scan the room, and in my heart I begin asking the Lord who he brought us here for – which dancer he wants us to call to come sit with us, who he wants us to begin to love and build a relationship with.
One girl after another dances on stage. All of their faces have hollow expressions.
As I watch the girl on stage dance, I wonder…
Did she choose this? Surely there is a some sort of restaurant in need of a waitress somewhere in the surrounding area. There is no way anyone would choose being stared at and played with by perverted men night after night. Does she hate herself? Has she numbed out? What is she thinking right now? Is she dancing poorly on purpose so none of these pitiful men call her to entertain them? Is there something deep inside her pleading to her, saying this isn’t what she was made for?
I ask the Lord what he thinks of girl dancing on stage. I feel him say, “She doesn’t have to perform.”
I start to think of how many times we think doing things and performing for whoever or whatever brings fulfillment and life, but really it is just draining. All it does is suck the life right out of us. I think back to the time I really began to understand that God just wants me for me, that I am enough because he says I am enough, and that there is nothing I can do to earn or remove his love for and delight in me. I pray for her to come to know and believe this truth, and I ask the Lord if he wants me to call for.
Several minutes later, my thoughts and prayers are distracted by a chubby, hairy, curly-headed man, sitting to my left on the other side of the room. He is currently smoking and is clearly drunk. He gets up from his booth where two women sit, and he begins to sway and dance, first in front of them, and then he moves to the center of the room. He looks around, eager to see how many people he has stolen the attention of. He makes sickening eye contact with me and I quickly turn away with a look of disgust on my face that I don’t care to conceal.
I try to just watch the girl currently on stage, but he keeps getting in the way. Finally, I give in and just stare at him.
A minute later, the Lord prompts me to ask him what he thinks of that man just as I did the girl who was dancing.
Before I can even inquire, I hear him say very clearly, “I love him too.”
I sink in my seat a bit, feeling convicted of the judgment and hatred in my heart, but also feeling warmed by the unconditional and nondiscriminatory love of the Father.
How vast, how gracious, how unbelievable is the love of our God?
…
My team and our local Nepali sisters were able to meet and make friends with a few of the girls in the DB that night, two of whom came to the beauty day hangout we held the following week. However, God did not just bring us into Tequila for the beginnings of relationships with those three girls. He also brought us there for me – for my heart to change, and for me to see people a little more like how he does. My heart has expanded with a greater understanding of God’s love.
I believe that God hurts just as much for the man filling his need for love with forceful, perverted pleasure as he does for the girl whose body is mistreated night after night. Jesus did not come for a select few, but for all.
Both the men and the women in DBs are lost; they are empty; they are searching for something; they are in need of love, truth, grace, direction, and hope, but mostly love – unconditional and sacrificial that only comes from the Father.
God didn’t create problems; he created people. We can hate the problem, but we must love the people who have the problem. The only way to mend the problem is through love – his love. God’s love is the only love that can renew minds and heal hearts. Do you believe that?
What would our homes, communities, workplaces, schools, and streets be like if we began seeing and loving everyone how God does? Would you seek to see people and love people how God does with me?
“The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
“For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” Luke 19:10
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
