The heart of the struggle

So I’m sitting in a bar, drinking beer, trying to write a column which needs to be poignant, funny, serious, spiritual and life-changing all at the same time, and it isn’t easy.
I hope you have been enjoying and getting something out of these columns over the past weeks.
I’m very thankful to have been given the opportunity to do them. It’s not easy talking about religion, God and the church in the LGBTIQ community.
When I tell people I am a minister, I usually get one of two responses. It will either be you can’t or can you still have sex? My answers to those are I can and Of course!
One I also seem to get a bit, especially from younger people, is How does it work? People are intrigued to find out how I can be an openly gay man and an ordained minister and have the two fit together.
Sometimes I ask myself the same question. I look back over the last 10 years of my life and think how on earth did I end up here? The answer to that is simplicity. After struggling for many years trying to reconcile being gay with being Christian, one day I woke up to the fact that it didn’t have to be so hard.
I started thinking I know that God and Jesus love me. I know I have been created in the image of God. I know I have been created gay and it hasn’t been a choice.
So if I know all of these are true, then God must love me as a gay man and if I have been created gay then why would God want me to not be able to express this as fully as I wanted to? Suddenly I was free to worship again.
However, I know many still struggle with this issue and it is very tough and can take time. Know you are not alone, and there are safe places for you to come and just be with God. MCC is one of these and everyone is always welcome.
Blessings, Gavin.

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