Standing on the Promises

It's Aug 1, 2012. It's been the third hottest summer on record since they started keeping records. It's CFA (eat more chikin') appreciation day. I'm eating chicken (from the cafeteria at UAMS) and having a conversation about all the hoopla surrounding CFA. Another coworker walks in, hearing only a snippet of our lengthy conversation, and politely (with head shaking and gumption) says, "I'm just standing on the promises of God. Ain't never seen no gay man that didn't choose the path of sin.".

My first thought was to quietly exit the room without confrontation, because I do not believe being gay is a matter of free will. I also don't think you can "pray the gay away" because I have a friend, Josh, who prayed and cried for years, begging God to just make him "normal". I know how hard his personal struggle was, and the "cost" of finally accepting himself as a gay man.

My second thought was, "I wonder if she knows just how far God's promises stretch.". From my own personal experience and lessons I've been taught in and through people of faith, it's much farther than palm-to-palm. It's much larger than the ark built by Noah. It's even bigger than a rainbow, and if you've ever tried to find the pot of gold at the end, you know that's pretty big.

I also know the depths of human love. Just when I think I can't possibly love anymore than I already do, I am surprised that I really can love more. Love isn't even the right word. It's so overused in our society. We use the same word for our feelings about our favorite ice cream, a new pair of shoes, a haircut, for a newborn baby placed in our arms, and that special someone who makes us want to be the very best version of ourselves.

I'm not the sharpest crayon, but I believe a God who is capable of creating the earth, the oceans, and the animals of the land, air, and sea -- and is also capable of allowing His very creation to crucify a man on a cross to prove his love, is also capable of a love beyond understanding. A truly unconditional love. A love we humans are only capable of if we dare put ourselves last in every single relationship.

So then I started thinking about the various promises given to us by God. I look to Jeremiah 29: 11, Romans 8: 37-39, Matthew 11: 28-29, Isaiah 40: 29-31, John 15: 27. I believe in the God of the Old and New Testaments. I believe in a God who is capable of loving all of his creation. I also believe in a God that is WAY bigger than the teeny tiny box that creation places around him.

I agree. I too, will stand on the promises -- the promises of grace, hope, mercy and love.