Stripper's Bible Study Part 1

Does the word "stripper" bother you? Do you prefer to be referred to as a 'dancer'? I always did. As a matter of fact, my friends and I referred to the club at which we worked as the 'ballet'. It made me feel graceful and even uppity to mention the ballet. "I must go, I have to be at the ballet by 7pm". How chic and cultured. I spent most of the money I made and any time I had trying to create the image of a little rich girl whose daddy must take good care of her. If people were going to make snap judgments about me as they passed me by, I wanted them to at least be a little jealous as they did so.

Of course, I was one of the lucky strippers. I didn't have kids to pay for. I quickly aborted any nuisance that crept in on my super fab lifestyle. Many of the girls I worked with at the club couldn't afford fancy clothes or a nice car because all the money they made paid for childcare and other kid-related expenses. I found that the dressing room of a gentlemen's club was really just a small, and maybe a bit twisted, version of the real world where there are parents and singles and the motives that drive each group are different, but the method is the same.....make money to support your life and do whatever it takes to succeed.

Whatever it takes to succeed in a strip club can get pretty nasty. A competitive environment, not unlike Wall Street or Real Estate, you only get the big bucks by carving out a niche or going the extra mile....so you better be creative and open-minded. And you better be willing to face some hard times, after all, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Being a waitress in a strip club made me stronger which lead me to dancing. Dancing topless on a stage didn't kill me, so I was made strong enough to master the 'no touch' table dance. Table dances lead to friction dances and before I knew it, I was fierce and strong and feared nothing. There was no line I wouldn't cross for the right amount of pay-off as long as I was in control. All those difficult trials that, when I was 19, I thought I could NEVER do, made me strong enough to persevere well into my 20s!

This is where the Bible Study comes in. Did you know the saying "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" came from the Bible? Well sorta. That's a paraphrased version, but the original goes like this:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

This was the first Bible quote I read as a stripper. And it was palatable. It didn't have too much Jesus in it for me at the time and it seemed to apply to real life. I considered myself tough from my years of dancing and this quote might make me tougher. It made me want to take on challenges so I could grow. Embrace pain. Face the devil. Endure!

Little did I know that God would use that quote to strengthen me so he could pull the rug out from under me and ruin my life. I clung to that quote while Christ shattered my life into a million pieces so he could put it back together again more beautifully, more completely and even stronger than before.

It was James 1:2-4 that prepared me to be ripped apart. And God provided James 1:5 as hope that I might be put back together again.

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5

I was a rather cocky topless dancer and I would not have admitted to many people that I lacked wisdom, but deep down I knew there was life I was missing out on. I wanted to be treasured and valued and loved by a good man and nothing I had done in the 5 years of stripping had shown me where to find that or how. So, yeah, I guess I could have used a little wisdom. And here was God offering it to me. What could it hurt, in the privacy of my bedroom, to ask God, if he did exist, for some of this wisdom he promised would be given so generously? My prayer for wisdom was like a high-speed DSL connection to God. He started to pour into me his knowledge and truth and faith began to blossom.

That's where it all started to fall apart. The image I worked so hard to create, the one that made people jealous, began to unravel. Now I was just a Christian stripper. Great. As if strippers aren't hard enough for people to accept, now I'm a stripper who believes in God. I can see people's eyes begin to roll already. Snickering. "Silly girl, you can't be a stripper and believe in God".

Well, I was and I still am. Maybe you are too. I'm not working in the clubs anymore, but I will always be a stripper who believes in Jesus. Apart from Him my life looked pretty but was really desperate, false, scared and filled with lies. Now that Christ has re-built me and redeemed me, my life may not look as glamorous and is sometimes hard, but it is filled with truth, love, joy, peace and I am truly enviable because I am a girl whose daddy takes very good care of her.