Happens When WHEN PURPOSE CHOSES YOU?

By Beth Trouy

speaking with Church leadership about the importance of affirming hospitality. But life drives purpose. I hit a brick wall in my twenties like many other gay people growing up in conservative faith communities and I had to shift my focus. My job was no longer the priority; getting mentally healthy and doing something about the growing anxiety and rage in me became more important. It was the unhealed wound no one could see. Being wounded by those around me was not my fault but I needed to own the task of taking time to get it healed.

The gift I believe for marginalized persons, our super-power you might say, is empathy. Having felt such isolation, rejection and sometimes sheer terror, we first develop a herculean heart that learns to survive by overcoming fear with pure resolve. Once we can stare fear in the face, we learn through experience that the emotion overpowering fear is love. So long as we live in fear, we are unable to be free. I’ve always said that our wounds, once healed, become gifts. The scars we bear are proof that we can heal and be freed of the past. We learn in our weakness that love is the only steady force inside that cannot be overpowered. Loving myself and later, forgiving those who hurt me, freed me. It not only freed me, but it moved me to take a stand for others.

In the current climate with over 500 bills against LGBTQ+ persons actively being reviewed across the country, I know I can’t sit on the porch now. Standing up for my fellow LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters is more vital than ever. I must be visible to defend their dignity but also, to show them my own healed scars so they know they can survive this too. We are all here together for a reason. None of us can get through life without the help of those around us. Empathy is a force in itself; it paves the path for love to win. Eventually, love will win. We just have to refuse to give in to fatigue and fearand keep standing. There will be time enough in the afterlife to sit on the porch.