Thoughts from 2007 Part 2

X-Men and The Cure

I have not watched many movies, compared to the average movie viewer, but I have had a preoccupation with superhero movies. X-Men, Batman, Spiderman, Fantastic 4, Daredevil, etc. I guess I like seeing good triumph over evil, which is a common theme in superhero movies.

With X-Men "3", or better known as The Last Stand releasing May 26th (an important date for other reasons, people!), I have been thinking about superheroes, and more specifically, The X-Men. For those of you who are not familiar with the X-Men, they are people who are born as some type of mutants. They have a variety of unusual and amazing abilities. One character, aptly named Piro, can shoot flames out of his fingers and ignite anything on fire. Another, "Storm", can bring up a storm at will, and then there is my favorite character, Cyclops, who I used to be fascinated with because of his looks, but also because of the character he plays, so hopefully I am straightened out on that.

The world fears the X-Men, and attempts have been made to get rid of them, without success. In The Last Stand, from what I have read, there is a cure found for the X-Men, to "cure" them from their abnormalities, and make them completely human. From the sounds of it, the cure isn't a good thing - I could be wrong about that, but one thing for sure, the X-Men fight the cure and don't want it.

In a weird way, as a man struggling with SSA, I have identified with the X-Men. That might sound bizarre, but just as people in the movie fear and don't understand the X-Men, some people, Christians especially, still fear homosexuals, and don't understand them. Man, we don't even understand us! Unlike the X-Men, I welcome a cure, I think. Some days, I am thankful for what I have learned as a man struggling with SSA. There are a lot of things I wish I could go back and do differently, and yes, I am lonely a lot, but on my better days, I am thankful for what I have learned. I think I am a better person for having gone through being a gay male.

Had I never experienced these struggles, I may have never turned to Christ. It has been a rocky relationship at best, but even in my worst moments, I still had the desire to do right, and to be a Christian.

With about 8 months of mentoring for Setting Captives Free under my belt, I know I enjoy helping guys that are struggling with SSA. I hope someday to do something like that again, but with a different ministry. One dream I have, is of moving to Indiana - well that is a dream and hope all its own - but I would like to move there and start a Homosexuals Anonymous chapter, or something similar with my friend who lives there.

So, if like the X-Men, were I suddenly offered a cure to my sexual desires, would I take it? If it didn't change who I am, and what I have become, yes I would. The Bible does command us to be thankful in everything, and sometimes we don't think that is possible in some circumstances, and had someone told me to find something to be thankful about my SSA even a year ago, I would have thought they were totally nuts, and called the men in white coats, but I see things differently now.

Yes, I would welcome a cure, and we do have a cure. Jesus provided that cure 2000 years ago. Sure, we wish the cure worked faster, and differently than it does. In most cases, God doesn't wipe out the SSA and make us straight. It is something that takes years, and in a lot of cases never completely goes away. But to get discouraged over that, and feel God is letting us down by not completely curing us, is to miss the point.

What is a greater miracle? To turn a gay person into a straight person, or to change a wicked sinner who desires their own sex, into a Christian, and wipe away all of his sins, and make him pure, even if he were with a couple of thousand sexual partners of the same sex?(No, I was not with that many!) To think that one drop of Jesus' blood doesn't turn a guy straight, but does change his heart from being black with sin, to being white as snow!

It would be awesome to not have the struggle of trying not to look at other guys, and want to do things with them that the Bible says is wrong, but it is tons more awesome that I used to be a filthy degraded sinner, and God now sees me as holy and clean! You can be straight and miss Heaven, but you cannot have God in your heart and miss it, so if I were to choose straight, or Christian, I will pick the greater of the two any day. I would much rather struggle with SSA until the day I die, and stay true to God, and make Heaven, than to be changed to 100% straight, lose my compassion for people who struggle with sexual addictions, and even possibly miss Heaven.

So for we who struggle with SSA, let's not worry about a "cure". Be thankful for the cure we already have, and let God use us as we are. Someday, the SSA may be entirely gone, but in the meantime, we need to let it make us a better person, a better Christian, and instead of allowing it to drag us down, and back into a sinful lifestyle, we need to allow it to drive us closer to God, to spend more time in prayer, and attempting to become more like Him.

The X-Men have nothing on us! We possess the greatest cure the world has ever known. Let's make better use of it.

1 “ Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“ Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool" Isaiah 1:18

In His Grip, Mark