I’m So Dumb!
When it comes to the things of God, I have to admit – I feel pretty dumb.
There are things I DO know, I know He loves me. I know Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth and lived a sinless life. He was crucified on a cross, died and rose three days later – He did as a sacrifice. A sacrifice to satisfy God’s requirement for perfection from us before being in His presence for eternity.
Since Jesus did that for me, I want to be as much like Him as I can – that’s called being a disciple, and Jesus asked us to go and make more disciples.
Wow, I have such a long, long way to go (anybody who knows me will attest to that.)
I know people who not just understand but can tell you how verses in Daniel directly relate to Revelation, how verses in 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles and the Psalms all connect to King David (I had to look it all up.) People who have STUDIED the Bible, they know it inside and out – have read it cover to cover countless times.
…even those who study the Bible don’t know everything!
…even those who study the Bible don’t know everything!
I know people who can tell you HOW we got the Bible that we do today. Who wrote it, how it was painstakingly copied letter by letter, word by word so that not so much as a single character would be different than the original document. It’s inspirational!
I’m in awe of these people, and I’m not as smart as them.
Thankfully, God doesn’t require us all to be “smart” when it comes to His word. He doesn’t require a seminary degree, He doesn’t expect us all to go to a Bible college.
In fact, the people Jesus kept closest to him, the ones he called to change the world – several were just fisherman, a couple were what you would call “educated” and a few we really don’t know.
So as someone who was born transgender, I’m now amazed at how quickly those with a “Biblical” education are so quick to say how sinful it is to be transgender – as if it were a willy-nilly idea just for the fun of it to somehow say “God, we don’t care what you think!”
Something I had to learn (and it took many, many years) was this – that even those who study the Bible don’t know everything! God may have given them wisdom but that doesn’t mean their wisdom is EVERYTHING.
Just because a pastor says something doesn’t mean it comes directly from the mouth of God. Granted most pastors pray for guidance when preparing their sermons (I certainly would HOPE they do,) but even that doesn’t mean that when they stand there on Sunday morning that they speak for God – no questions asked.
They don’t understand (and by that I mean have NO clue – they are ignorant) what it is to be transgender, and because all they can do is relate it to the word sex and from there they go off the rails. I’m frankly amazed at how far their own imagination takes them at just the word “transgender”. The assumptions that are made are mind boggling. For many if you’re transgender you’re really homosexual and therefore you were just looking for a way to have sex with someone of the “opposite” sex by pretending to not be who you “really” are. As if you were a male-to-female transgender person the REASON you went through the hell of changing your identity to being known as a female is that you could have sex with men.
I sit here amazed of the thought process people take – but somehow they do.
Look, if you’re transgender, you KNOW you’re transgender. You’ve always known. If you grew up when I did, you really couldn’t say much. Today it’s easier but still not easy.
My point? The “church leaders”, the pastors, the spiritual leaders who speak out against those who are transgender are dumb. They are ignorant. They are uninformed.
Don’t hate them because they’re dumb. They are uninformed. Maybe, one day they will come around.
What they might say does NOT reflect God’s love for you nor His desire for relationship with you. Your being transgender has NO reflection on your standing with God. People will make you question that.
I get it – we want to respect those who have studied the scriptures, those who have knowledge we don’t have about the Bible. And we should. I revel in what my Pastor has to say each Sunday – it’s so very good. If he ever went on a rant about how transgender people were destroying the church of Christ, I’d be hurt and might even leave – but would NEVER let that stop me from loving God and what He has done for me. God determines who is saved, not Pastors, not learned people who have studied the Bible.
You know who you are as a person and you know who you are as a Christian who loves and follows Jesus. Let that be your guide.
People will condemn you regardless. As His child – God never will!
– Blessings
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What a great word Laurie. I used to think pastors had all the answers and bottomless wisdom…until I became a pastor LOL. One point of clarification, if I may; knowledge does not equate to wisdom. One may have memorized 1000 Bible passages and have ZERO wisdom. Wisdom comes from God. We have to seek it and we have to receive it. 1 Corinthians 1:8 says “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”. Knowledge of God’s Word isn’t enough. There is a infinite number of ways we can interpret knowledge. Wisdom is what narrows our aim and moves us closer to… Read more »
You’re absolutely right Sharon and I stand corrected. I didn’t mean to imply that Pastors have wisdom because of their Biblical education. In fact I know that it’s NOT true in many, many cases. I’ve had a couple of Pastors in my life whose name started with “Dr.”, but of all the pastors I’ve ever been blessed with, the very best ones, the ones who made the biggest difference in my life – not one started with Dr.
I am pleased that Sharon became a pastor. I have preached three times in the last 17 years (all within the past 2 years) and had pastored before transitioning. I would love to preach and maybe pastor a church again, but transsexual women are not welcome in the pulpit. To think it is because of the ignorance of the male ministers that create the problem in churches today!. No one is to preach assumptions as gospel and that is exactly what is being done today.
Hi Starla, I’m glad Sharon did too! But just so there’s no confusion – Sharon is an honest to goodness Pastor who was born a woman, and awesome mother of four children, married to a great guy and also my spiritual mom. You might want to check out the Junia Project page on Facebook, they are committed to helping women leaders in the church.