It was a night just like any other. For over a year, once a week I would enter the strip club and bring a meal to the employees working there. Honestly, after the hundredth time of walking into this place, it felt like home. I high-fived the bouncer, hugged the manager, said my hellos, and started setting out the food.
But this wasn’t a night like any other, because tonight God would teach me a lesson that would change my life.
I could tell I was feeling a little “off” after just a few minutes of being there. My heart was really heavy and I felt like I could burst into tears at any minute.
There was a woman dancing on the stage that I had known for months. I knew this woman, I had a relationship with her, so I knew that she had three kids at home. I knew she had been battling a drug addiction for the past 10 years. I knew that in the light of day you could see that she had scars all over her arms from a life of drugs and deep circles under her eyes from hardly ever sleeping. I also knew that this woman hated what she did and she often talked to me about her dreams of quitting. And yet there she was, this woman whom I had grown to love, doing unspeakable things for what looked like just a couple of crumpled up one dollar bills.
It was suddenly in that moment that God spoke to me louder than He’s ever spoken to me before. And what He said was not maybe what you’d expect. He didn’t say, “Go drag that woman off the stage! What she’s doing is terrible!” He didn’t say: “Get out of this strip club! You’re too good and pure to be in here!” No, what He said to me was “Emily, that is you. That’s exactly what your sin looks like. Every time you gossip about your friends, every time you choose yourself over your husband, that is what it looks like.” Sure, I can cover it up a lot more easily than this dancer could. I can keep it hidden and secret, deep within my heart. But my sin is the same as hers.
Now praise be to God, we know that’s not where the story ends! By the overwhelming and scandalous grace of God, we know that Jesus took our appalling sin on Himself.
But please listen to me: all sin, no matter how big or small, put Jesus on the cross. And do you see what happens when we come to that realization? Do you see what happens when we realize the depth of our wickedness? It’s no longer us Christians over here and those “sinners” over there. No, now it’s all of us over here and a holy God over there and the only way any of us can get to Him is through the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Brothers and Sisters, this Truth should compel us to go and tell everyone what we know. Go and tell everyone that we have a Savior who carried our sin for us! We are all sinners, and if you’re a Christian, praise God because you were a rotten sinner who God chose to save. Don’t keep your distance because you refuse to see your own depravity. Instead, let’s be a group of people who love much because we know how much we’ve been loved.
