I have been a Christian since I was 16 years old. I am now 47 years old. During this time I have had many ups and downs. The most difficult times I have had in my Christian walk are the times where my faith has caused me to be disconnected from certain family members and some friends. It seems so paradoxical. The thing you would think would draw you closer together is the thing that ends up separating you.
The most recent illustration of this in my life has been my ongoing relationship with my brother. We have the same parents but we did not grow up together because I was adopted by my father's brother and wife when I was 2 1/2. There is 3 year difference between my brother and I. I always wanted to hang out with him when we went over to there house as kids. I wanted to be just like him. He had bit a of a bad boy image. He seemed to always find ways to get into trouble and eventually that led him to getting into trouble with the law.
He left home got married had a child and through the influence of one of my cousins got involved in drugs. His marriage did not last long and he ended up in and out of jail. Throughout that time I tried to maintain a relationship with him and after I came to faith in Christ I reached out to him with the hope he would come to faith in Christ and get his life turned around.
At that time I was attempting to live as a straight woman. I realized I had gay tendencies when I was a teenager. I was told that they would send me to hell if I lived those tendencies out. I obediently submitted to that advice and for the next 12 years struggles with wanting to love God and live passionately for Him and realizing that I did not connect with men in the way I was suppose to according to the mainstream view.
I eventually came to a place where I told the Lord I needed to reconcile my sexual orientation with my love for Him. I begin to seek out a church fellowship that could assist me with that and I ended up at Metropolitan Community Church. I met my spouse 6 months later and teeter on a thin line having constant debates with myself concerning the theological soundness of what I was doing.
See future post to hear the rest of the story!
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