What if this is all we've ever known?

I shared this truth with you in our last time together: God’s Word is full of people who have messed up. And moreover it’s full of people that have messed up sexually. There is a story tucked somewhere in God's Word for each of us. He uses His real story in someone long ago to reach into our stories right where we are.

So, which story first? You could run the spectrum from prostitutes to kings and ordinary people in between, so let's just start with a prostitute. 

Rahab is introduced to us in the Bible in Joshua 2. (I encourage you to read verses 1-13 to get a feel for her story.)

In verse 1, we are given a snapshot of her life: she lived in Jericho and she was a prostitute. 

Before we even know her name we understand her story. In Rahab’s hometown, Jericho, all around in daily life, celebrated in festivals and worship during the seasons, at the center of authority and culture, was this deeply degrading religion that resulted in perverted sexuality and horrendous human sacrifice.

Rahab’s eyes, heart, and mind were perpetually bombarded by a culture that devalued people, and sexual sin was squarely in the center of that. This is what she knew.

I believe God shares that she was a prostitute in Jericho, because He wants us to identify several spiritual parallels in our own experience and healing. For us, the focus is less on her profession and more on her culture.

Culture can shape us and instruct us in monumental ways. When it comes to our experiences with sex, or our “pasts,” we may have acted or felt the way we did because this was all we had ever known.

When women have shared their stories with me, many revealed that they didn't understand that sex outside of God’s design was a “thing.” Either they didn't know God, or if they knew about God, they may not have thought He paid much attention to sex and sexuality, specifically their sex and sexuality. They felt no shame, no conviction or remorse, and no regrets based on having sex. As one woman shared with me, “It’s just what we did.”  

I say that frankly so you’ll know that I am not out of touch with the fact that you may be walking this journey with me and you may have had sex in a time of life where sex did not have the words “premarital” or “sin” attached to it. It may have had love, commitment, partying, “it’s what kids do—so just be careful,” excitement, fun, the fulfillment of sexual desires, and a full range of other feelings attached to it. Sex was a part of life and relationships. 

Apart from knowing God and His passion, plan, and purposes for us--including sex--what are we left to play out or experience? We know what we know, and live accordingly.

Think about our culture with me for a minute. Our world, our upbringing, and our context play a significant role in defining our understanding of our bodies, our beauty, our relationships, our worth, our love, our sexuality, and how we meet our needs. What does the world around us teach us in everyday life in these areas? “World” may include our families, friends, co-workers, schools and universities. “World” also includes media. Think about what we see and hear through music, the internet, movies, celebrities, nationally known psychologists and doctors, books, and magazines.

What has the world or culture taught you personally in regard to: 

• What is good and bad about sex? 
• How should you view your body? How should others view your body? 
• What are the most important aspects of a relationship with a man? 
• What’s beauty? How do you know you are beautiful? How do beauty and sex go together? 
• What is the importance of satisfying your sexual desires? 
• How much of your identity and/or image is in your sexuality? 
• What makes you valuable? 
• What is love? How do you know when you’re in love or are loved? 
• What does a satisfied and secure woman look like? How does she relate to men and her body? 

Look back at the list of questions. Which of those isn't taught at all? What goes unspoken? What are you left to figure out on your own? So many of us have developed our own way of living and approaching relationships and sex based on what we can figure out and what we see. It’s bound to be a broken or incomplete approach.  

When God interrupts our lives that are so ingrained in our culture, many of us meet the wonder of the God Who rescues with an eye looking over our shoulder at all we've learned and done (and are doing). We feel another sense of wonder at how God is going to “take all that", or help us live differently. 

The truth is God saw Jericho. God saw Rahab, in all her reality. God did not wait until Rahab had recognized all the fallacies, degradation, and moral corruption of Jericho before He began to stir something in her soul. He did not give us scripture that stated that she once was a prostitute that had recognized her reprehensible ways and people, and was now living entirely counter-culturally and therefore was worthy of rescuing. 

Just the start of Rahab’s story is God’s heart on display. No one--no matter how colored by culture, how sexually involved, how unaware of God and His ways--is beyond rescue. God has seen our whole stories so far, and yet He still draws near to us. 

What He shows us in that one verse is that He will meet us right where we are—whether we know it’s a mess or not. 

What we'll learn is He has a plan for both rescue and life beyond.

What He did for Rahab, He can do for us.

Just another seed of my faith, 
Ginny