A Crazy Story I

One day after school my friend and I were walking home. A black Oldsmobile stopped in front of us. There were three guys in the car. Two in the front seat and one in the back. The driver looked at me and asked if we wanted a ride home. I said "yes!" I looked at my friend and said "come on, it’ll be okay." Well… We got in the car. Immediately, the car began to drive in a direction away from our homes. I told the driver "hey, we live back that way". He said to me ‘Oh, we need to make a quick stop first.’

I began to have flirtatious conversation with the driver, laughing and joking. At the same time I  paid very close attention to route we were taking so I'd know where we were. After a 15 minute ride we pulled up to a large brownstone. The guys smiled and suggested we come inside for a minute. You would think that this is the moment all my alarms would go off… nope. We went inside the house. We followed the guys to the second level of the house to find a group of about three more guys. Now, panic began to set in. The driver asked me to follow him to the third floor of the house.  

I caution you before you continue to read understand that I understand this was stupid, naive and a few other words I can’t think of right now.

At that moment, I was thinking... I have to get us out of here. Maybe if I go upstairs with him I can convince him to take us home. So, I left my friend alone in the room with the 5 guys. Went upstairs with the one guy. Immediately he tried to be intimate. I implored him to just take us home. He persisted… I persisted... I lot of persisting was happening. Suddenly, he looked at me in frustration, opened the door to the room we were in and said "get your things and leave." I walked back down the stairs to find my friend sitting on a sofa waiting for me. One of the guys said to his friend ‘you guys couldn’t even pick up a couple of skeezers. At that moment the reality of our situation really hit me. My heart was beating fast I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. Instead I looked in my friends eyes and gave the best non-verbal apology I could muster.

The guys walked us to the car. Had us grab our back packs that we left in the car. They drove off and we just stood there.  At that point we just stared at each other. Grateful to be out of the house and away from them. However, now we had to figure out how to get home. Do you really call your parents for a ride? How do we explain how we got across town? We walked. The 15 minute ride in the car is a hour walk home.

We got home just in enough time to lie to our parents and say we stayed after school for tutoring or a club.

By no means was that one of my proudest moments. However, that was a defining moment for me. It helped me to understand jumping in cars is incredibly stupid and dangerous. 

My real point for sharing this story? I attend the most amazing church. It's full of beautiful broken people. It's not a place that you have to hide your brokenness. Pretense isn't just discouraged it's actually unnecessary. I've received such healing since my family started attending. It's such a place of Freedom Life. We sang a song the other night the lyrics; chimed like so

Shame is gone...   Sing is broken... Hide no more... Jesus paid the price I owe... 

Now I am forever yours 

best part starts at 3:22

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jzw0K26mF4

I began to think of so many shameful moments in my life and how they no longer weigh me down. The enemy no longer has power to make me feel like unworthy or unlovable. Then I thought... how many of us have these ridiculously stupid, embarrassing or shameful stories. We would be horrified if anybody knew. The guilt of the stories plagues even though we've been covered by the blood. What would happen if we exposed those stories? What would happen if we took away the power of the enemy to taunt us with shame by exposing ourselves and just sharing our stories. That's what I'll be doing in the next several blogs. You may be shocked to learn the truth about me... I really needed redemption. 

So join me on this journey. Comment and share your story...