Have you ever been told who you are is not good enough?
Have you ever been made to feel like your decisions in life, whether past or present make you less than someone else?
Have you ever felt like no one could understand or love you?
Have you ever felt shamed or guilted at the hand of someone else?
Do you question whether or not your life will ever amount to anything substantial?
Have you ever been you hurt? Broken? tired? desperate? alone? dirty?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions. Congrats You are human. You are living the human condition. You are just like the rest of us. Welcome to the world.
For 95% of my life thus far I have lived in a bubble. It was a very pretty, very clean bubble. Full of pretty and clean people “just like me”.
We all believed the same, prayed the same, worshipped the same God. Loved the same types of people. Married the same types of men and women. Had the same types of children. Judged the same sins. We all agreed to cast out the same types of people. “Habitual Sinners”. People who “actively chose to live a life of sin”.
And for years. I was ok with that. I am ashamed to say.That was acceptable to me, and I am sorry for that.
It has taken my own personal journey through my sexual orientation and gender identity to realize how grossly off base all of that was. Some people can get it without ever dealing with their own personal sexuality or gender, and I commend you allies for that. I was never able to do that. But I digress.
This is not about my personal journey.
This is a call…
A call to anyone who is different…
Anyone who is a misfit…
A castaway…
An outcast….
to say first…You are not alone…
You are not alone in your belief that there is NOTHING outside of the love of Christ.
In your belief that JESUS DIED FOR EVERYONE. Anybody who loves him, and follows his heart, is “saved” (used for lack of a better term).
In your belief that it doesn’t matter if your Gay, Straight, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Pansexual, Poly, 2 Spirited, or any of the other million and one ways we as a “Queer” community feel comfortable identifying ourselves. Jesus still loves you, because you are part of “the world” that God loved so much he sent his son to die for.
In your belief that there is something fundamentally wrong in telling someone they are LESS than because they are different.
In your belief that “Love the sinner, hate the sin” is a load of bullshit excuses that needs to be done away with forever. I mean its not even in the bible!
In your belief that you can love Jesus and love someone of your same gender, or change your gender, or drink whiskey, or smoke cigarettes, or have tattoos, or cuss, or all of the above. (thats me, at all of the above haha.)
And to say Second: If you believe in one or more of these statements my Selfish hearts desire is to tell you “Fuck the church, just love Jesus.” but I won’t. Because the truth is, They need love too. Perhaps more than we do. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” 1 John 3:14
Instead I will tell you…
Love Jesus…
Love those who hate you…
and He will love you…
Oh! and I will too…
And Lastly I will say: NO matter who you are, or where you are. If I’ve met you, if I haven’t or if I never will…I love you. Deeply and truly. You are accepted here. I would love to hear Anyone and EVERYONE’S thoughts or comments. No matter if you agree or not. Please feel free to comment below.
From S to J 