It’s June 16, 2017, and I’m in rural, midwest Ohio. I’m surrounded by miles of cornfields and it feels as though I’ve escaped from the reality of the outside world. Satellite internet comes in intermittently and there are only five channels on TV. It’s peaceful, it’s calm.
In Columbus, Ohio, just a short hour away, there’s a bustling city known for its hockey, football, and LGBTQ pride. This weekend Columbus hosts Pride Festival 2017, where they boast “The Best Pride in the Midwest.” Toss in heretical “Christian” mommy bloggers and you have a glimpse of our world today.
But although I live in the middle of nowhere I cannot and will not hide from the heart-wrenching reality of the lies that are overtaking friends, families, and quickly infiltrating the local churches.
I am not a mother, nor do I follow “mommy bloggers,” but over the past year I have noticed a disruption in that sphere of the blogging world. Two of the most well-known “Christian” mom bloggers came out in support of the LGBT movement. Jen Hatmaker posted a status on Facebook that ended with, “My message to you today is simple, LGBT gang and all those who love you: You are loved and special and wanted and needed.”
Momastery blogger Glennon Doyle Melton recently “came out,” divorced her husband, and found “true love” by choosing to marry another woman. Both of these women bloggers have millions of Christian and secular mom followers. Hatmaker and Melton highlight their “messy beautiful” lives, showing other moms the reward and hard work required for the life they so desperately seek.
Elle magazine has recently published a long-form essay highlighting the ups and downs of the life of Glennon Doyle Melton. She spent her early years living a tragically sad life, yet on the outside appeared as if she had it together. Her college years were spent in a drunken stupor, but a baby “changed” it all. She married the baby’s dad, and settled down into “mom” life, quitting her deathly habits altogether. She had kids and enjoyed married life for years until she finally found her “true love” — another woman. Her husband explained how he learned about her decision:
As for Craig, he remembers receiving an urgent text message from Glennon one afternoon, saying she had something very serious to discuss. “It sounded like 911, like Code Red,” he tells me over the phone. “I rushed home. On the way, I was thinking, Either she has cancer, or she’s gay.”
When he found out it wasn’t cancer, “I hit the floor bawling,” he says. “I was just so happy she wasn’t going to die.” Then came a wave of “sadness, confusion, and anger,” he says. “I thought we had been doing things the right way. Both of us had been working on ourselves. We’d entered a phase that was supposed to be a new life for us. It was a shock. It felt like the end of the world.”
But eventually, Craig says, he felt he had no choice but to accept his new reality. Glennon and Abby are, after all, “two women following their hearts,” he says, slipping into Glennon-speak. “Isn’t that what life is all about? Finding true love? If Glennon is happy, and Abby is happy, and the kids are thriving, what’s wrong with that?” “
We live in a messed up, sinful world. When we search for happiness above holiness, what we fail to realize is that holiness is the only way of achieving true joy.
None of us has a straightforward relationship with our bodies. Some of us struggle with self-loathing, some of us have sexual desires that are out of control or wrong, and others are just getting old and breaking down. But this is not right, this is not good, and this is not how it was supposed to be. All of those things take us away from seeing God for who is He and our true purpose in life.
Because of sin and the fall of man, God has frustrated the physical order, even that which relates to our bodies. God’s Word explains the root problem is sin and God’s Word has the resources to help as we fight our bodily sin battles. As we can easily see, we are all sinners, but none of us are freaks.
If you are struggling with gender confusion, same-sex attraction, insecurities, or pain from getting old, welcome to the club, because we are a bunch of messed up people looking for worth and love in all the wrong ways. We seek to be happy above all else, giving in to the struggles of the flesh. But what Melton and many others have forgotten is the beautiful work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are looking to earthly circumstances for love, happiness, comfort, and joy. Something that will never be attained on its own, no matter how selfish the choices we make. The beauty as followers of Christ is that we look to the cross daily, with renewed hope and forgiveness for our sins, knowing that we can overcome temptation with obedience. As followers of Christ we continually look to the cross for redemption from the lies Satan so cleverly speaks.
Whether it be a mommy blogger or the LGBTQ supporters in Columbus, God created us all to have a heart that searches for love, acceptance, and belonging. When we lay our struggles, burdens, sorrows, and sins at the foot of the cross, then and only then can we find true happiness, joy, and peace in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
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