Why is it that all we hear from our pulpits, our schools, families, friends, peers, pastors, mission organizations, and others is the simple message: "you are not doing enough, you are broken, you are weak, God will never love you" ?
The greatest lie I believed for 10 years was not that being gay was a sin. The lie I believed, the lie I followed, the lie I worshiped, the lie I hated, was the voice that kept telling me "no matter what you do, God will never love you."
That my friends is the Truth Christ came to die for, the Truth that carried Christ to that cross, the Truth that sets me free day in and day out.
The Truth is not evangelicalism, the Truth is not Wheaton, the Truth is not family, friends, relationships, hobbies; the Truth is not in "good works", in "living morally," in celibacy, ex-gay, straight, or being gay.
The Truth is in Christ. The Truth is that We are beloved. We are the beloved children of God and nothing can set us apart from this love. God speaks, in the gentlest whispers and greatest tempests, reminding us of that only Truth "I love you, you are my beloved." We only a a few short decades to proclaim with our lives that beautiful truth, "God, I love you too."
The lies we tell ourselves are amazing. This reminds me of a quote from a Stephen Sondheim musical (yes, I would go there): "If other people did to you what you do to yourself, they could be put in jail."
ReplyDeleteWe buy into all of these half-truths and incomplete pictures and let them define us. We see through a mirror dimly, but soon we shall see face to face.