Sex Standing Up : Moldova Part 2

If you missed part one, please read it first: Part 1

Throughout my trip I was reading the book written by John Eldredge, entitled Beautiful Outlaw. If you've not read it, I would highly encourage you to do so. And I hope with this next sentence you will still read his book, and the rest of this blog for that matter. The title of this blog I questioned, but you are here reading this so it either hooked you in, or was in poor taste enough that either way you are here.

In Eldredege’s book, he pokes fun at the joke, that I've heard many say about Baptist, you know the one, “ Why don’t Baptist have sex standing up? Because it would look too much like dancing.” Honestly I've never gotten the joke, cause I’m not sure a Baptist would talk about sex in public either, well at least not the good ole’ conservative southern Baptist. But this was the point, Christians in their various denominations get lost in their theology. They, I guess I should say We, get lost in the man made rules, and loose sight of the real Jesus. The real Jesus, is amazing. Simply and truly Amazing. He was, as Eldrege talks about, playful, with fierce intention, fully man, generous, free, cunning, humble, true, beautiful and so much more. Jesus never put the religious laws over the work of His father. Healed on the Sabbath, talked with prostitutes, more than that, he gave his life for them, for you and for me. Read this book, it will open your eyes. But the reason I am sharing this book and the “joke” with you is to talk about my trip, and well frankly the numbness of the church ( the church as the universal church, meaning all believers).

I heard a story about a girl, and I’m only sharing this story because it was told in public, and then retold to me. There was this girl who lived in a village. Her mother needed some money, so when a man came through town offering loans, her mother took one. A couple months later the man came back, wanting to collect the fees, but the mother did not have any money to pay him, so she gave her little girl to settle the debt. The man took the little girl (I forget how old she was, but she was under 13) to Russia to beg on the streets. As time passed, the little girl grew and was about to turn 14, at this age, she knew that the man would make her be a prostitute. So she, by the grace of God, found a non-corrupt police officer who got her to a shelter. Well later on, the man came back looking for her, this time with her mother, all dressed up, in efforts to get the girl to come back with them. He made promises of a normal life if only the little girl would return, show casing her mother as "proof". She was smart, and refused, seeing through the deception. Well this littler girl, now grown up, was sharing her story among professionals and Christians, and one response was from a “Christian” who wanted to know if the girl was going to go home to her mother to share the gospel. The little girl said, that she would not be returning to her mother, that she had forgiven her mother, but did not want to endanger her life again. The Christian scoffed, and said that it wasn't right. He was numb to the emotional damage, the physically damage and the spiritual damage that comes from being sold by your own mother.  He had no compassion for her, only judgment.

Media desensitizes the reality of death for us through realistic drama. We stop seeing death as emotional, and only see it as something that simply is, or something to be solved, simply. Shows like CSI and NCIS are intriguing shows that take you on whirlwind of crime solving, but they also show death—so much death that are society is now numb to what death means. News channels are constantly filled with victims of drive by shootings and gang violence, and we are numb to what that means. Children go missing, gang violence, rape, murder, death, all horrible things that we are becoming numb too. Human Trafficking is the largest fastest growing industry in the world. The price for a slave is cheaper than ever before in history. Sexual Slavery is becoming the next thing that people are becoming numb about. We hear stories of girls being “taken” from their lives, forced to be used as an object, a disposable object at that. Even movies and TV shows have been made about trafficking, and just last week, it was the theme in an episode of NCIS. We are aware of the dangers, the issues, and as Christians of course we don’t like that this is an evil of the world. But instead of being proactive, we mistaken pity as compassion, we've got it in our heads because of what the world says, that this is an evil that can not be fought. This is something that only the coming of Jesus can end. We've turned this horrible, unimaginable, detestable industry as something to bring entertainment in movies and TV. We are numb and don’t even know it.

I will never forget. My freshman year in college I saw the movie “Taken.” At the end, I was crying—not a slight tear rolling down my cheek, I’m talking about bawling my eyes out, gasping for breaths. My heart just broke. It broke for the ignorance of those girls, who unknowingly put themselves in a situation where they could be kidnapped. My heart broke for the brothel situation, showing young girls drugged, beaten and chained up. And my heart ached incredibly, because I knew that people would watch this movie and simply say at the end, “what a good action movie.”

Numb. Numb in our theology. Numb about changes in society. Numb. That is one thing that I do not see in the Bible. Jesus never said I want you to be numb to the problems of this world.  No. We are called to be gut wrenching compassionate, loving and serving so much that we have nothing else to give and have to rest only on the strength that comes alone from God. Sin- separation from God is what evil stands for. Satan is remarkable good at his position of fooling people. And people are fooled, believing lies. Because when we remove compassion, humility, love, and replace it with numbness, judgement and jokes-- well that means we are removing God's heart from us, and replacing it with sin. 

 Prostitution is an age old profession; it is even mentioned in the Bible. But it is only a chosen profession if the woman has the rights to her body.  If a women makes the choice to be a prostitute, does it mean that we are to have any less concern for her well-being, physically or spiritually? No. But what is more common now is that what appears to be a prostitute, is really not the girls choice, but she is forced into this situation either because of a debt, or false promise of a better life, or simply because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

If you are a man reading this, I want to take a moment to say to you that having sex with a prostitute is not manly. It will not fulfill you in any way that is lasting. Pornography is a sin. But more importantly if this is something you are struggling with, think about the person you are looking at. It is highly probable that beautiful women is a slave. Bought like cattle, but treated worse than any animal. Men, you control the markets of what is important. You tell women what is beautiful and what is not. You drive the slogan that sex sales. And I hope that you read this and when your buddies jokingly look up porn, or you yourself struggle with sexual sin, that you will take a moment and think about the person- stop seeing an object to be awed, but see the human. You run the market; you set the tone, choose today to indulge yourself in the love of Christ so that you can feel compassion for the hurt and broken, and make a difference. It is a feeling that will last longer than any one night stand, or a moment with your computer could ever offer.

If you are a women, teen, mother, sister, hear me know. No matter your life circumstance, no man should ever have the right to your body without your 100% consistent. Now a days with Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, your life is well documented. Be careful. If you do not know what being careful means, I will share a little right now. Personal information, like “check ins” and your telephone number, those are things you should never publicly post. Those are things you should never tell a stranger, so do not post those so openly. Parents, teach your children to be aware of their surroundings, smart with their information. Raise them to not go seeking love in random places so that they do not end up in a situation that will haunt them forever. People say that poverty makes girls seek to turn tricks, or seek love in every man. The truth is absent parenting plays a bigger role. Please, spend time with your kids, talk to them about the dangers, but teach them to be responsible with that fear, so that they can be self-aware and make smart choices in life.And most importantly make God a priority in your life, so that your children will want to make God a priority in their life too. Set the expectations high.

Finally a note to us all- Love. I just spent the past two weeks with beautiful women, who opened up their lives to me. They are not sex objects or some girls from a movie. They are not someone who wants your moment of pity. They are my sisters in Christ. Their pasts are filled with the unimaginable, well actually, their past may be similar to stories you've seen played out in TV shows and movies, and what may seem like a far off issue is really right under all of our noses. The world is numb, lacking emotional connection to issues. You, what are you? Are you numb?  Change is a scary word, but right now I am telling you, I know change can come. Cultural change may be hard, but it should not be hard in the church.

Let the Holy Spirit move in you to have compassion and not pity. Wake your churches up to the dire need for prayer, funds, missionaries and simple love around the world. You are one person. I am one person. But together we are the body Christ. Theologically we may not be exactly the same, but as Christians we should all have one thing in common, one common goal, to see the body of Christ do what it was created to do. Big Church buildings, fancy church programs, elaborate retreats?Those were not the goals of Jesus, relationships were his area of focus. The physical needs, he met, he loved each person, individually. He saw their individual need, past and pain, and met it all with love and compassion and forgiveness.  Well, all I can say is open your heart to compassion that runs deep, love that never fails, and serve others before yourself—Let God move among His people, so we can be the vessels that God uses to show his light in this dark world, and let us not be to simply just be.

Radical Feet, a mission to change lives one step at a time.

I have one more blog post this week to share, so I hope you will be sure to come back to read part 3 of what I have to say! Thank you for your time, love, prayers. I know together we can be the change.