Love Guides Us And That's When We Win
Love Guides Us And That's When We Win
Love is a beautiful framework toward healthy perspectives and personal authenticity...
WHY hasn’t even been published yet, but it has already generated important conversations with people I haven’t heard from in years. Others are also reaching out, hoping for a listening ear. All of them are facing incredible personal challenges and choices regarding who they or their loved ones are as LGBTQ+ people.
I am honored beyond all get out that these beautiful people would reach out.
When my world started to gain momentum in falling apart and all the leaders I had idolized seemingly turned into back-biting gossip monsters, I lost all hope. If what I was promoting and teaching would turn me into that? …No thank you. But, they had been promoting and teaching the same things, and yet not only had they not “changed” their sexuality or identity, but the fruit they bore (the result) is the complete opposite of what the Bible claims love is.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails…
That’s when I stopped listening to the many, many, many, many words delivering curses and death instead of life and started looking for true Divine Love to guide me wherever I was supposed to be. Where the fruits of the Spirit, especially love, were not displayed, I avoided or left the situation without engaging in any more vitriol. So, I started gravitating to where I believed Love was genuinely being displayed.
And that’s when I realized I needed my own house to be in order—to display what love looks like so that I could determine the next step in my journey.
Below, my temptation was to turn each aspect of love into a bullet-point explanation of how it has and is playing out in my life. But that’s not the point of this post. The point is to encourage utilizing true love as a framework for your station in life. So… here goes…
Love flourishes in a hospitable environment
Patience
Kindness
Love is short-circuited by
Envy
Boasting
Being proud (at the expense of others or as an inaccurate assessment of an overinflated ego)
Dishonoring Others (regardless of who they are)
Being self-seeking (selfish)
Being easily angered
Keeping a record of wrongs (holding grudges)
Indulges what is evil
Love Wins When We…
Rejoice with truth
Are protective
Are trusting
Always hold on to hope
Love always perseveres
Every bullet point in the three lists above is always applicable to an honest self-assessment or assessing current relationships. Every bullet point can also keep us centered on how we interact with others who may not be displaying or even aware of what love looks like.
If all of this intrigues you, copy the bullet point list into a journal entry and write out what each point brings to mind and whether any action steps might be inspired (for self or extended to others).
When I needed a baseline to operate from once the ex-gay cultish ideology was stripped away, this focus/activity helped me survive plenty of dark nights of the soul before and after closing Exodus. It remains a life-giving reminder ever since.
Now, I will take the W (win). Love has truly manifested in my life and is always a faithful Guide to keep me healthy/honest on the journey.
