"No way," she said, "you won't!"
With a stern look and a slight grin on my face, I looked her dead in the eyes and asked, "You've gotta get this assignment done, right?"
Point proven. Enough said.
Last Saturday, we dressed in our best, traveled to Atlanta, and for the first time in our lives stepped foot into a gay bar. (If you haven't read the preface to this, please do so here.)
What I encountered as we broke the threshold of Mary's front door was not a bunch of men dying to rip my clothes off. No, I was reminded of who we are as a creation – flawed and needy, looking for Love.
We made conversation, interacted as if we were regulars, and simply dove into the lives of these people, getting to know them on the reality of where they stand.
They stand as outsiders to 'normal' society, ostricized because their sins are in the open. But truth is, we are no greater just because we can get away with hiding or downplaying our sin. We all sin. We all fall short of the cross, but in our own ineptitude comes the glory of God. We fail, but He succeeds. You see, we are all God's children – no exclusions, no exceptions.
As we noticed men snuggling and kissing on one other, and women, three at at time, "grinding" so tight that you couldn't fit a piece of paper between them, it didn't take long before I looked in their eyes and saw the deep scars of abuse, neglect, and fatherlessness.
Confusion. Empty confusion. God-sized holes that only True Love can quench.
Who better to greet them with this Love than us? You may ask, "Why?" but I say, why not?
They were made for His love too. They were created for an authentic romantic experience of freeing love just like you and I. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world" and who better to blow up the darkness than those who have been given the Light?
Leaving Mary's, I felt as if I didn't have enough time, as if there was so much work to be done and not enough time in one night to do it. I felt as if these people were hopeless if we didn't do something about it.
This bred questions in me such as, why don't those who hold the Light of Power enter the doors of places like this more often? Where's light's presence in dark places like these? How can we set captives free, give hope to the hopeless, and defeat darkness if we aren't doing anyhting about it?
Where do you fit in?
–Isaiah 61:1-2
