Change and hope

 There’s a disturbing big number of questions that start with “I never used to want to __; I wonder why I’m starting to feel differently now” for which the answer is “oh, that was a response to gender dysphoria.” I guess the good news about the past is wow, I developed a lot of coping mechanisms and the good news about the present is being able to begin to imagine possibilities beyond them…

I've always understood myself as an introvert. But as I'm rediscovering myself, I'm realizing that gender dysphoria led me to just be uncomfortable in a lot of social settings because I felt like I was present as the *wrong person,* and as I'm trying to grow into my more authentic self, I'm surprised how much more comfortable I am in social settings. But also I have some sort of audio processing bug in my brain, so too many people talking at once does cause my brain to shut down.

Mark 9:38-50

Interesting to contemplate this coming Sunday's gospel in light of the concept of gender affirming surgery. Especially when we think of sin not as individual bad actions, but that which impairs our relationship with our creator. I can certainly testify to the experience that having the wrong body parts can cause one to live in a hell, where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.

The reign of God

The reign of God is a way of living in love, in contrast with the way of this world, in which people either oppress others, themselves live under oppression, or most frequently, both. The good news is that there is a way to live in God’s reign of love, both now and eternally, that involves neither oppressing nor oppression. The task of the church – the only worthwhile task of the church – is to come together as the people of God and begin living this new reality here and now. Everything else is vanity, and a chasing after the wind.