What God taught me about: being naked (part one-exhibit a)

It started out pretty casually. Michelle and I were sitting under a tree enjoying our lunch with a group of guys at youth camp in Malawi. Naturally being in a group of young singles, our conversation turned to relationships.

Someone asked “have you had a relationship? If so, why and how did it end?” The first volunteer to answer the question threw us all for a loop when he started spewing hate-fire all over our little small-group.

“Yes I did have a relationship. I met her in church. She seemed pure, innocent. She told me she was ______.” (fill in the blank. He told us all the ways she deceived him.

” I trusted her.”

He then proceeded to tell us his story of heartbreak. But this man wasn’t only upset. He was bitter. He was angry.

“All you women are the same. You’re liars. Cheaters. Deceivers.”

Hold up son. What?

Michelle asked him, “have you forgiven her?”

He snickered. “No I will never be able to do that.”

Then I asked “have you forgiven yourself?”

Once again, “no that isn’t possible.” This time he added, “I have felt so much shame and guilt every single day. I don’t think it will ever go away.”

I swallowed the lump rising in my throat because it was month 7 and I knew the Holy Spirit nudge by then. I was supposed to get naked with this stranger. (I promise that’s not how it sounds. Keep reading, you’ll see). The cool thing is, I was leading the next session, which started in about five minutes. And my first order of business was sharing my testimony. Now, I knew I had to share all of it.

But the purpose of me telling him my own testimony wasn’t so that he would know he wasn’t alone in being weighed down by guilt and shame. No no. It’s much greater than that.

The purpose was for him to know there is hope. There is redemption. There is forgiveness. There is freedom. Because praise be to God the story doesn’t end with the shame and the guilt.

And not just in some fluffy, far away idea kind of way. But in a right now, in this moment kind of way. I can only tell him, what I know to be true. And I wouldn’t know it’s true if I hadn’t experienced it myself.

He was cold, judging us as self-righteous, naive, sheltered Christians who would never understand a struggle against sin, especially sexual sin. I looked him right in the eyes as I described the forgiveness I had found in Jesus. The forgiveness I didn’t think was possible. The freedom that marks my life as hidden in Christ.

I noticed a visible change in him after that. He was smiling and laughing. No longer gritting his teeth in anger.

He softened toward us. At the end of the night he pulled us outside. Then opening up the pages of his memory he told us the things he had never told anyone. I could see the freedom it brought him to just say the words out loud. memory after memory. Struggle after struggle. It was obvious, the tears and the confession were cleansing for him.

He told us he felt different. Leaving the city on Friday, he prayed a prayer. “God I need you to speak to me this weekend. I don’t want to come home the same.”

And he wept. Like literally wept, shoulders shaking, as he told us his own story and how God had used us to bring him the freedom he so desperately needed. He thanked us profusely and told us no one had ever loved him like we had in just two short days.

That breaks my heart. Because I wonder where his friends are. Where is his family? And why aren’t they loving him? But it also makes me grateful. Because God will do whatever it takes to reach us. Even if that means sending two American women to the middle of nowhere in Africa for the weekend. And I guess when I really think about it, I am his family. You are his family. And we do love him.

He told us, “God did answer my prayer. I’m not going home the same. I know now that I am forgiven and I am free.”

And that. That is what we live for and what it is all about. Seeing brothers and sisters all over the world find freedom in Jesus Christ. Seeing them embrace forgiveness and redemption. Knowing that he accepted the heart healing our Father so longs to give.

Now for what God taught me through this and what I really meant about getting naked with a stranger please read part 2. 🙂