The news broke yesterday that NBA Jason Collins came out as gay. The full story will be in the new issue of Sports Illustrated. As a Christian, I am not dismayed, but to be honest, I have other issues, 10 to be exact, that I am focused on at the moment:
1. Paying my mortgage
2. What’s for dinner?
3. What will I post about tomorrow on this blog?
4. How are my kids are doing in school
5. Finishing this pantry project in my house.
6. My Thrift Store Prom event for our youth ministry this Friday.
7. Wednesday Youth Service.
8. Iron Main 3
9. Writing stuff
And
10 What others will think of or accuse me of because of this post
What does this list mean? Life goes on. Life is still normal.
I think of it this way. What if Jason were one of my students? Would I cancel worship? Disband the youth group? Send out nasty tweets about them? Burn them at the stake at the next youth weenie roast? No, life would go on, and life goes on for me. We treat stories like this as abnormal. They are unique, but not abnormal. In fact, with this confession, things like this may become more normal.
What else should be normal? Love. We, as Christians, should be known as great lovers of people. Do not deviate, Do not be led off the path of love and into the fray of judging and politicizing. Would you let others in the youth ministry talk bad about your student Jason? I didn’t think so. Let’s treat Jason, like he was one of our own students, and love him.
I Cor 13:4 (and the rest of the chapter) and I John 4:12
Have you ever had a student come out publicly that they were gay? Tell me, because I, and I think a bunch of other youth workers, have never had a kid come out to them or publicly. Your thoughts are valuable.
What if Jason were your student? What would you do?
Has this happened in your youth ministry? Did life go on? Was it different?