The Big Question

I don't usually write about things with political overtones because that's not what this is about, and I don't want to turn what I'm learning about who God is into some big policy debate. With that in mind, let's continue.

I watched this fabulous interview today over at The Gospel Coalition. It's a little over an hour, but if you a are a person, especially a person in the church, and even more important, a person who may have the opportunity to minister to someone in the gay community, this is a must watch. Dr. Rosaria Butterfield was a research professor at Syracuse University, living with her lesbian partner, and lost her job, her friends, her home (that she owned) when Jesus called her into covenant with Him. She is now married to a Reformed Presbyterian pastor and homeschools their children.

I have not (yet) read her book, but I am planning on it. It goes into more details on her journey to Christ, but a brief synopsis is: A pastor engaged her in conversation after one of her papers, and invited her over for dinner with his family. He welcomed her, and asked her real questions. He encouraged her to read the Bible and let her feel comfortable in his spaces. The church did the same. Eventually, one day, she knew that Jesus was the real deal, and that she was going to have to give everything up in order to follow Him: her lesbian identity, her sin, her job, her homes, many relationships. She was looking at all the moms in the church she was at, and all she saw was a bunch of cleaned-up, perfect looking people. She started going up to people and asking them one question:

What did it cost you to get here?

She wanted to believe that, to paraphrase Jane Austen, her sore throats her more than everyone else's. She thought she was the only one who was really struggling.

And she got real answers. She had people talk about their own sexual sin, their lust, their very real, very big would-be "deal-breakers". People were honest with her. She realized that everyone has to give up the same thing in order to follow Jesus: everything. She wasn't any different from anyone else.

I like that she asked that question, and I like having to think about the answer. She says that it's an important one to ask ourselves, because what meant the most to her was not people telling her Christianity would be easy and they were all perfect, but that she had to count the cost.

And she did.