Late one evening In the red light district me and two other girls on my team spot a bar that has countless girls dancing in front of it so they can lure people in. Mission accomplished because we wanted to go in. We eagerly crossed the street because we couldn’t resist.
But our motives were much different than the average customer. The majority of the customers that walk into these small bars that shine brightly with different colored lights are people looking for a “good time.” A good time that allows them to have their hands all over the young women and ladyboys that are working and then will eventually lead to them purchasing someone for the evening.
But we were there to love. And not just a love produced by our flesh but the love that lies deep within our souls that is placed the by The Holy One. A love that is contagious. A love that is compassionate. A love that is incomparable. A love that cannot be denied once it has been tasted.
So, the rest of our evening was spent there playing pool with two young girls that quickly became our friends.
As we were heading out to leave for the evening a white male in his fifties stops me. He starts asking me questions about who I am and looking at me with eyes that I had never seen before. Eyes that cried out for a pure love but also had a film of lust and greed that needed to be washed away. As I’m talking to him I find out that he’s Dutch and came here on vacation seventeen years ago and simply never left because he loves Chiang Mai. He then says that he’s moving back to Europe soon because his wife and daughter want to go back.
He has a wife and daughter.
And this man is currently in the midst of the red light district looking for someone to purchase.
My heart sank for him. For his wife. For his daughter.
I later find out that he has three children and he shares with me about them just like the typical proud dad does. All the while there are half naked girls dancing around us and he’s eyeing every last one of them.
As the conversations comes to an end we make our way out of the bar. But as I looked back at that man I knew I couldn’t be mad at him. As he raved about his children I realized that he is human just like the rest of us. He adores his children as most fathers do, works a normal job, and is dealing with the everyday stresses and brokenness of the world.
But the difference is that he hasn’t tasted the sweet sweet love of Jesus. And that right there is what gets me through this broken world with grace. Endless amounts of grace straight from Jesus.
So the reality is that we are all broken people living in a devastatingly broken world. But it’s how we choose to deal with that brokenness that defines our being. And for those who just don’t know that grace of Jesus yet, well then I can’t be upset at them. I can be upset with circumstances and the situations but I can’t personally be mad at them. Because they simply just don’t know any better.
But that’s why I’m here doing what I’m doing. I’m here to love every single person I encounter and show them grace with every word that falls out of my mouth. I’m here to get rid of my personal judgments and refine my heart to mirror the heart of Jesus. It’s hard. Like really hard sometimes. Especially the moments when I meet a man who is eager to purchase a woman as he has a wife and family waiting for him back at home. But that’s when God puts me in check and whispers in my ear,
“Darling, I love him and adore him just as I adore you. I long for his heart to cry my name just as yours does. So my sweet daughter, please just love him as I would. Show him grace upon grace upon grace.”
So that’s what I’ll do. That’s all I’ll do. I’m not here in this world to condemn, scold, or persecute but I’m here to shed my flesh and let the light of Jesus beam through every single moment I’ve been blessed with. Even the moments that are caked with the filth of the world.
So let’s love harder than we think we can and trust that by grace and endless streams of mercy that God will use us in every situation if we are willing. And I don’t know about you but I know that I am more than willing. Because I too have been caked with the grimy filthiness of the world but Jesus still saved me in the midst of all of that.
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