Life is about taking risks and helping people.
That’s what the race is all about, stepping out in faith and helping hurting people who need to know what love looks like.
There is so much importance in sharing your story, your story gives you your character. Your story can give someone the confidence to share things with you that they can’t tell family and friends.
I learned that one day when I went on my friends motorbike for the afternoon. We drove up the coast and talked about life. I shared about my life and how the love of Jesus has transformed my life and heart for the better.
He shared with me that he was gay. It’s something he can’t tell his family and friends because he’s afraid of what they will say and how they will react. His parents are very traditional so they want him to have a wife and two kids and a big house and he wants the same thing but a husband instead of a wife. He thinks they would kick him out if they knew. The kids at school would beat him up if they found out.
For 19 years he has struggled with trying to balance supporting his family, pleasing society and trying to be himself. As soon as he saves enough money to move out he plans on telling his family the truth about his sexuality. Until then he was going to play along like he has the whole time and pretend to be interested in girls. He just kept saying “Life is just really hard.”
I shared with him that with Christ life isn’t easy but you gain a hope that you didn’t have before. You find comfort in that hope and it keeps you going.
I told him that I support him in being gay. I believe that the Lord commanded us to love everyone and that includes the gay community. People should be able to love who they want to love. End of story.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” -1 Corinthians 13:13
Later that day Paige (one of my teammates) shared with me that he told her:
“I came out to Coco (my Vietnamese name), she still loves me [because] she loves Je$u$.”
THATS IT FRIENDS.
THATS WHY WE ARE HERE.
There is such freedom in telling people, getting over the fear and finally letting it out. It seems to take all the courage in the world but it’s so worth it.
Be an example of what life can be like when you love WELL and show the love of Je$u$ through your actions. Go start living a life in the freedom and joy that the L0rd has created you for.
“Enjoy your place in my [G0ds] story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I [G0d] have created you.” — “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” Donald Miller
