please stop hating

so God's been teaching me heaps lately. mostly about love, grace, mercy and learning. i've been away from home a lot, and it seems that as i've traveled around the country, there's one common theme that has been presented to me: people are really uncomfortable with homosexuality. when i'm home, it rarely ever comes up. my friends and i just live from day to day and love people and seek Jesus (please don't read into this that we're perfect...i struggle with a LOT of other things)...the fact that there are people out there who's sexual orientation is different than mine just doesn't come up. but i've been in places lately where people do talk about it. a lot.

it has burdened my heart tremendously to hear conclusions being made, lines in the sand being drawn and black and white pasted to the issue. brothers and sisters, our God is much bigger than we can imagine, and His hands are strong enough and wide enough - gracious enough to heal this wound. you and i must stop seeing people who are different from ourselves as bad and wrong. we cannot continue to single out entire people groups and cast them away from the Father. whether it's people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender; whether it's people who are homeless, black, white, native american, refugee, undocumented citizen, prostitute, pimp, there is nothing that can separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8 and Colossians 3 have spoken to me about that...also this passage from 1 John chapter 2: ⁹Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. ¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

let us not be blinded by the darkness. let us instead walk in the light and love our neighbor. brothers and sisters, let us love people who are different from ourselves, who believe differently too. i've been humbled and challenged to love and learn from people whose convictions are different from my own...to listen and just sit in a posture of learning.

i've been reading "love is an orientation" by andrew marin. if your heart is piqued for the challenge of stepping out of your comfort zone to love and learn and hear voices from the gay community you should check it out. he talks a LOT about the discomfort he's experienced and how he's being transformed by the love of Christ. i'm encouraged that he's seeking the Kingdom in such a fresh way and isn't listening to the voice of the world, but the voice of his King.

sometimes it can be overwhelming to take the first step into an unknown world - no matter what it is. but i encourage us all to pray for boldness and courage to step...small steps first. pray for the Lord to speak to our hearts and to open our eyes to the hurt that we as individuals (and as a church community) place on people. and from a place of humbleness and studenthood - yes i just made up a cool new word - lets begin seeking Jesus and the restoration He will bring. it's so easy for me to be discouraged, "yet this i call to mind and therefore i have hope: because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed. for his compassions never fail, they are new every morning." even when i'm blinded by the darkness, the mercy of the Lord does not fail - he is faithful to call me back to the light if only my ears will be open to hear his voice.