He Chooses the Foolish Things

by Stephanie Lacy

I have been graciously asked to write for this wonderful publication and I would like to introduce myself. But before I do, I want to introduce you to Jesus. Some of you already know Him. But HE IS the reason I am alive today. He is the reason I walked away from drugs and stripping and a life full of depression 20 years ago. He is the reason I survived HELP syndrome when I had my son. He is the reason I didn’t totally crumble when I lost most of everything 7 years ago. He is the reason I preach, He is the reason I pray, HE IS THE REASON for every little thing I have and hold.

He met me one day all though I didn’t recognize Him, through a bible sitting on a table one day in 1997. I was living a dark life stripping, snorting cocaine, doing pretty much every drug, my friends were those who threw the raves in Dallas so my life was up all night sleep all day. Either I was partying at work, or partying when I was off. I tried everything that I thought would make me happy. I even thought dating a millionaire would make me happy, but it didn’t.

I was seeking something. I was seeking truth. I started to deal with my childhood.. I got self help books like the “road less traveled” ask me how that helped. Well, it didn’t. I visited tarot people, I visited psychics, I looked around and around and around for the answer. Still depressed, still doped up, still taking my clothes off being propositioned even by cops. Yes cops and they were not undercover.. There was nothing I felt that was worth living for here. Nothing made me happy. Nothing. Money I thought would make me happy but it was as empty as everything else. I then realized that I was a true realist. A foolish realist who dropped out of school at 16 and ran away from home to become a braces wearing childish underage stripper. They didn’t think twice about hiring me.

A day came when I was cleaning my then boyfriends apartment and he had a bible sitting on the table.. (he was a preachers kid that I met in the strip club) that bible called to me. Audibly. I went over to it and opened it up to Genesis. Never read the Bible really. It was a book I thought that only priests read. (Raised catholic) I read the first verse and immediately felt conviction. I said out loud, “whatever is in this book I have NOTHING in common with. Everything I do is wrong.” Little did I know I was confessing my sin to Him. Nevertheless I slammed it shut and pushed it away. Went back to what I was doing. Three days later I was at the same place doing the same thing. I then heard a voice louder “come and read” this time it was like a magnet pulling me into it. I flipped it toward the back and read the first verse my eyes laid upon. “Those who walk in the darkness stumble, but those who walk by the light of the Lord are blessed.” It hit me like lightning right down my midsection and I saw a vision of me stumbling in my heels in the dark club.. but then I saw the contrast “light of the Lord” and “blessed”.. I had a new hope from a place I had never been before. I was all of the sudden hungry for the word and I had no idea why. I had no idea what was happening I just was so hungry and thirsty for it.

I read the Bible for months in secret. No one knew. Not even my boyfriend. I was too afraid of what people would think. Something was changing in me as I read the words of Jesus more and more until one day I couldn’t take the pain in my back and in my heart any longer. I felt crushed. I didn’t know what else to do. I crumbled to my knees at the fireplace in that house off of Shadywood off the creek in Richardson. I cried and cried and finally I spoke.. all I do is screw up my own life.. Maybe there is something you could do with my life Lord.” I had no idea what was really happening to me. But Jesus appeared. He said, “You have to ask me to come in.” I realized he was standing outside of what looked like a cell door. I of course said, “Come in Lord!” He took a key and opened it and as soon as his beautiful foot came across that threshold the dingy dirty moldy pain infested, sin covered, dark walls came crumbling down and a bright light came in and a rain unlike the rain on the earth came down upon me and He embraced me. The angels were all around in the room lifting trumpets up. I was thinking, “what is happening.” I couldn’t help but notice all the back pain was gone in that instant and I felt clean. I knew I was forgiven. But I still didn’t understand what all had just happened. I had encounters before. But this was so different.

I knew something had changed but I didn’t know what happened until two weeks later when I finally opened up to my boyfriend about what I experienced and found what had happened was I had gotten “saved”. I said saved? What does that mean?? He laughed and was at a loss for words. “You mean you don’t know that you got saved? You just stumbled into this? I have never seen anyone come to the Lord like that!”

I eventually started attending Prestonwood where I would get baptized and shortly would be met by another former stripper who met the Lord and we started “Amy’s friends” which is now called “New friends new Life” a ministry for women exiting the sex industry. Since then I was married, had 3 children, divorced, and then started ROTH, a ministry for women coming out of any sexually exploited business. I have rescued, housed, fed, clothed, provided funds for assisted and ministered these ladies mainly coming out of prostitution and sex trafficking. I have ministered to top CEO’s even leaders like Ron Loveless the CEO of Walmart on several occasions, other ministers and various leaders. If God could use me, He can use your ashes and turn them into beauty.. I will leave you with my favorite verse out of Revelation 12:11 For we have overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.