I Must Confess That I
Struggle With These Topics…
This afternoon, as I picked my daughter up
from school, she told me about a young man who has gone public with his desire
to be a young woman. This child is suing
the school for the right to live as a teenage girl, including the use of the
girls’ restrooms in the school. This teenager is obviously courageous in the
fact that this is an issue that could bring so much trouble into a life that is
already apparently filled with angst, and yet chooses to move forward in this
attempt to live in a way that he or she feels is authentic. But what is the desired outcome, and what
will the measurable outcome be? I’m just
not sure.
The teenage years (even as far away as I am getting from them now) are some of the most difficult years we face as we struggle to find out who we are and who we want to be. So how do we engage in honest dialogue about these issues with our children and young teens? How do I as a person of faith, who tries to lead others in their faith walks, engage in discussion of issues that have found no end of argument for as long as humans have been recording their thoughts on the subject? And am I being authentic in my proclamation of God’s word and its authority in my life, if I don’t recognize that the subject is dealt with fairly clearly in that Word?
This is truly a Kingdom shaping moment. God’s word has been misused so many times in the history of humankind that it renders it vile in many people’s opinions… I am very conscious of that fact. I tend to be cautious when I approach subjects like this for just that reason. But because it (like all gifts in creation) can be used for destructive purpose, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t valid or valuable. It gets tangled and messy. It challenges us and stretches us. It tells us things that we don’t want to hear. It clearly contains language and passages that are foreign to our current experiences. But it is that “outsideness” that gives it value.
