May 31, 2007
Another “bad girl” hits the dust. At least, that’s the headlines ripping across the print magazines, and airwaves. But it makes me wonder. Are they really “bad girls”?
Last Sunday I sat in my home church and I watched a group of women sitting in the front row. They’ve been coming to our church for months now. One named Stephanie caught my attention. During worship she raised her hands. She jumped up and down with excitement.
Isn’t that distracting, Suzie?
Hmm. I don’t know. Maybe so, unless you know her story. She was also a “bad girl”, at least that is the label she wore for a very long time. She didn’t have Paris’ riches or family heritage. She didn’t have Britney’s musical talent. She’s never starred in a movie like Lindsay. But she had a lot in common with these three. Drugs railroaded her from the life that she wanted. She got pregnant. She alienated a lot of relationships that were once very valuable to her. One day she hit rock bottom.
She was in a drug rehab when she met a woman named Kim, a former drug addict who found God in prison and who now served as a Chaplain. This woman shared the news that Stephanie’s life mattered to God, and that there was a better way.
Leaving a life of drugs, of sex without love, and addictions that had nothing to do with drugs seemed impossible. And yet that is why she worships so freely now. Because she is free and has been for a year. She knows that God loves her. She knows that her search for purpose and meaning has only just begun, and each day it unfolds a little bit more.
As I read the headlines about the three “bad girls”, I feel an overwhelming desire to pray. They are beautiful. They are privileged. But perhaps they just need to know who they are out of the spotlight, out of the fame, and in the hands of their Creator.
Sure, you can learn from them what not to do, and I hope that you gain insight from their lives. But I also ask you to pray for them that they will find a loving, life-changing relationship with an amazing Savior.
Real Word: John 3:16-17 (The Message) - This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
Erin says:
Thank you for this. I really do need to pray for them, instead of merely pity them.
T. Suzanne Eller says:
Hey Erin, thanks for stopping by and for your comment. I think about how Christ would react in this situation, and your response is perfect. Pray, love, and spiritually reach out to them as his, rather than think of them as celebs. You rock!
Jade says:
Are they really “bad girls”?
No, Suzie, I don’t think they’re really “bad girls”. They’re searching. Looking around at their lives going, “Is this all there is?”
They try to dismiss the questions, to ignore them through the drinking and drugs and whatever else they can.
And everyday the stakes are higher. A little more alcohol. A little more X or pot…all in the quest to end the questions.
I know about the questions and trying to ignore them because that’s what I tried for years. Didn’t work. I only ended up more lonely, more afraid, more broken-hearted.
Then I hit what I call “breaking point”. Where there are no more defenses left. No more excuses. And the question: Is this all? CANNOT be ignored any longer. And when I really asked the question, I had to look at my life and acknowledge that yes, God is real. That’s a scary thing to admit when you’ve seen as many fake Christians as I have.
You know the thing about walking with God, is that the more you do it, the more you see just how many problems could be resolved (or at least made better) if we all strived to walk with God.
Anywho, those are my ramblings on the subject! Meant to add those girls to my prayer list earlier today and forgot.
your friend,
Jade