You Are Qualified

by Jaz James

If you actually read the stories about Jesus, not the sanitized Sunday school versions but the real stories, you’ll notice something: He spent most of His time with people the religious people hated.

Sex workers. Outcasts. People with complicated pasts and messy presents. People everyone else had already labeled and dismissed.

For example, Matthew was a tax collector, a traitor who worked for the occupying Roman government and got rich stealing from his own people. Jesus called him to be a disciple and showed up to party at his house with all his tax collector friends. The Samaritan woman at the well had five failed marriages and was currently living with a man unmarried, and Jesus had one of His most profound theological conversations with her. In fact, she was the first person He revealed His identity as the Son of God. Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out of her and a past that made religious leaders deeply uncomfortable, and Jesus trusted her to be the first witness to the resurrection, the most important moment in human history.

And He didn't show up to lecture or fix them or make them feel small. He showed up because He actually liked them. He saw them as human beings with dignity, not as projects or cautionary tales.

He called them by name when everyone else only called them by their reputation.

If you've ever thought, "God wants nothing to do with me," you’re wrong. He's never been afraid of real life, even if it gets complicated, messy, or painful, and doesn’t fit neatly into religious boxes that church people (not God) created.

What You Think Disqualifies You

Maybe you think it's because you’re a dancer. Maybe it's things that happen at work, or things you've done to cope with what this life requires. Maybe it's substances you use to get through, relationships you've had, or the person you've had to become to survive in this world.

But what I've learned is there's nothing you can do to make yourself unworthy of dignity, respect, or love, including God's love. You can't make choices that permanently disqualify you from belonging or being wanted.

The pain you may be carrying, the survival strategies you've developed, and the hard shell you may have grown are not wasted if you eventually choose to let it become part of a bigger story. Pain can turn into wisdom. Survival can turn into strength. The things that broke you can become the things that help you understand other broken people.

But that's your choice to make, in your own time.

If You're Reading This and Wondering

If you still matter? You do.

If there's still something good possible for your life? There is.

If you're too far gone? You're not.

Whatever you think prevents God from loving you…it hasn't.

No matter what the religious community says, you’re a human being with inherent worth, regardless of how you pay your bills. And that worth doesn't fluctuate based on your choices or your circumstances.

There's no version of your story that's untouchable.

No version of you that's unlovable.

You haven't gone too far.

You never could.

*****

Jaz James is the director of Strip Church and founder of Lace Warriors, a strip club ministry that serves over 200 entertainers in West Texas and Northern Mexico.