About eight years ago, a friend and I discovered there were record-breaking busts for sex trafficking and prostitution in our city. Broken over the thought of so many women and girls trapped in sexual exploitation, I contacted the local police to discuss the issue of prostitution and the possibility of outreach to the women caught in its claws. I suggested a plan to offer recovery services to every woman or girl booked for prostitution. After hours of conversation, the police not only agreed to offer recovery options and our mentorship program to these women and girls, but they also asked me to sit on their team that would address the men who solicit them.
What started as compassion for women and girls to know their value turned into opportunity to address the very men who drive the business for prostitution. I had never felt so out of my league. With a lump in my throat and prayers upon prayers, I locked eyes with every man legally mandated to attend what they called “John School.” Drawing from my work serving women in the sex industry who had been emotionally, physically, and mentally abused, I shared stories of trauma and recovery to give a glimpse of the horror these women and girls have endured for the sake of man’s appetite.
It was the Lord who saw fit for me to stand before convicted men in a windowless room and declare that women have worth beyond their physical bodies. Like every one of the felons’ mothers or sisters, each woman has a story—one that is intended to be beautiful and whole, not traumatized and exploited. I would have disqualified myself for this role the minute the opportunity arose, but the Lord had other plans that were far superior to mine.
Philippians 2:13 tells us, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” In other words, the Lord is at work for our good and His good. Our labor is not in vain. His plan to bind up the brokenhearted and liberate the captives (Isaiah 61:1) is for each and every one of us. As He redeems and remakes us, His love compels us to be the bravest and most audacious and grateful version of ourselves we can be.
While I originally felt I wasn’t built for addressing men who got caught buying women’s bodies, I found myself as a mouthpiece for justice, for goodness, and for redemption. We never know what the Lord has for us, but when we say, “YES” to Jesus, His plans could be even more significant than we imagined.
Adapted from the six-week Bible study Never Alone: 6 Encounters with Jesus to Heal Your Deepest Hurts, Tiffany Bluhm, Ó 2018 by Abingdon Press. All rights reserved.