From coast to coast and across the waters, every continent awakens and retires to the same news: Pandemic cases dwindling here, surging there, vaccination and mask mandates, violence, and unprecedented weather events.
In that sense, there is no difference between gays and straights. None! We have all abused our free will to create conflicting definitions of love, marriage and sex and thus refusing to allow God, who is love and the author of human sexuality, to define and explain those terms for us.
We can love like this only when we confess that such love is only possible by God's grace and then ask for it – i.e., for his ability to love, which he freely bestows on those who want it. With commitment and practice agape-love becomes real, and I realize it's not just me loving. God and I are doing it together because agape-love is the result of the relationship between God and me.
This past week, one of my friends asked me about my take on 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” She, like many others, has heard this passage quoted regarding everything from cursing to those dying as a result of liver cancer or complications from AIDS.