I know I have some catching up to do these next fews days, but I’ll try and not type them up all at once. I’m going to take a break before I finish up the last three minors, because I really want to go and see them again before I write about them. It’s been nearly five days since I’ve seen them and I’m starting to miss those teenagers….
So today’s subject, Junny, nearly brought me to tears the other day. I spent most of Sunday in the hospital going stir crazy by myself as everyone else was in church. I half expected Monday to be similar, but was blown away by the number of people that came to visit me. Literally, people from every circle I’ve met so far was represented and I was just blessed by the number of people that came by to visit me. At one point in my room, I had a former gang leader, a gay student, and a hospital evangelist all spending time together in my room. I wondered if heaven looked any different.
I met Junny a week ago Sunday at one of the campus meetings I was invited to. This particular organization is a leadership training group and is focused on raising up and becoming the next leaders of this city and province. Junny was the first student I met and we just talked for a while. I could tell most of the guys in the meeting were a little effeminate, and even though this is the first group I’ve seen in the Philippines, it seems to be a trend in Southeast Asia. But nonetheless, we had an incredible conversation that night, and I was able to meet a lot of students and pour into their lives.
When Junny came by to visit me, he told me how worried he was for me. He had never heard of a foreigner being admitted to a Filipino hospital and just didn’t know how I could handle it alone in that place. I appreciated his concern, but I didn’t really want to be reminded of where I was. Our conversation shifted again as he began to thank me for coming to visit them the week before and that they greatly missed me this week. He said he felt loved by me and it was a blessing because he hadn’t felt that from many foreigners, or even friends sometimes. Then, in the midst of my sickness, he asked me a question I wasn’t ready for, “Can a gay person go to heaven?”
I wasn’t really expecting a theological debate in the hospital, but as I choked on my water, I prayer for words. He told me he had always been told the Bible says there are no gay people in heaven, but couldn’t find that in the Bible. Despite my position, I fired back, “Do you think there will be sin in heaven?” “Well, no…” “Does the Bible say anything about homosexuality being a sin?” “Well, of course.” Then, as I made sure this student knew that I will never condemn him and will love him the same, the realization sank in a little.
I have a good number of homosexual friends that claim to be Christian and love God. To be honest, I don’t doubt most of them. But this question is a hard one to swallow. Has a practicing homosexual ever made it to heaven? I can 100% say, I don’t know. I know what homosexuality is considered “Biblically” and it is something I will try and “love someone out of”, but the keyword there is “love”. Even as Junny sat in my room, I wondered at lines or phrases I could think of to share with him, but I just kept getting this overwhelming feeling to just hang out as he wrestled through his own thoughts.
Junny is an excellent student and a great kid and I’m excited to see what he does with his life. Right now, he’s searching the scriptures to see if a homosexual can get to heaven, but the more he searches, the more he’ll realize how much God loves him and the answer to this question is pointless compared to that. So keep searching, because as you do, you’ll get a much more important answer…
