Love, where is your fire?

This is the song that popped up today on my Pandora as I was getting ready for another day admist the world of radio waves and thrift stores with a dear friend. It is one of the lesser known that Brooke Fraser has put out on as I strolled around my room assembling my ritual coffee and make myself presentable. I make my way up to the eighth floor of Crowell to answer telephones for the last time on Saturday mornings for Moody radio-this will soon be replaced by teaching English to refugees during this time slot.

I settled in this morning ready to take comments and questions, not really knowing what to expect. The phone lines this morning have remained lifeless due to the subject matter. Hate crimes and homosexuality in the world today, not something that many people can identify with or even have an educated opinion about. I will openly admit that I fall into that category. It has happened on occasion while I have answered phones that someone tugs on my heartstrings and tears are brought to my eyes over the realities that some people wake up to and have to face every day. This happened today for the first time in many months.

A lady called in who is well into her seventies and talked to me for almost fifteen minutes about the church's attitude towards homosexuality and the alienation that so many homosexuals feel at the hands of Christians. She is not the first who has done this. I have had people sob as they relayed situations where they felt demeaned and belittled at the hands of their pastors and fellow believers alike. Where is their place in the church? Where is a place where they can serve? Can they serve? Should there be restrictions placed on them when they serve? Who decides what those restrictions are and how they are imposed? Who decides?

I have thought about this off and on over the past several months and have realized that homosexuality is still one of those issues that is taboo to talk about within the church today. It is one of those topics that make people uncomfortable, so it does not surface very often within the walls of our fellowships. Many people are not familiar with the different issues that homosexuals struggle with and therefore do not know how to relate or dialogue with them. There is such a disconnect between the two camps which inevitably leads to alienation and separation. How do you connect the two? Can there even be a connection or are these realities that are irreconciable? There is nothing that we can do in our own power, it is only through the power of God that anything can come to be.

As believers, we are heralded by Christ to be known by our love. Our love is to be a mark of identification, something that sets us apart from the world? How often do we fail oh church, on a daily basis at being the hands and feet of Christ? Help us Lord.