Ensign: Students Transcending Homophobia

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS                                       6 November 2014

WORD COUNT: 8,178

Lucy: Are you afraid of responsibility? If you are, then you have hypengyophobia.
Charlie Brown: I don't think that's quite it.
Lucy: How about cats? If you're afraid of cats, you have ailurophasia.
Charlie Brown: Well, sort of, but I'm not sure.
Lucy: Are you afraid of staircases? If you are, then you have climacaphobia. Maybe you have thalassophobia. This is fear of the ocean, or gephyrobia, which is the fear of crossing bridges. Or maybe you have pantophobia. Do you think you have pantophobia?
Charlie Brown: What's pantophobia?
Lucy: The fear of everything.
Charlie Brown: THAT'S IT!
[Lucy goes flying out into a field of snow]

(A Charlie Brown Christmas, 1965)

In my junior year at Stetson University (this would be 1992-1993, if you're interested), I began to attend a number of meetings for a new group that had formed on campus. As I recall, it formed in response to a statement made by one of the students -- a junior psychology major named Eric, if I remember correctly -- at an open forum with Jimmy Carter on campus regarding how openly homosexual persons feared to proclaim that they were attracted and in love with members of the same gender, and those who looked down on that were ... afraid of them.

The logic's never followed with me, from that day to this. How is something I do not like or do not practice myself -- I'm married with two children, and I'd like to think if I had any homosexual tendencies I would have acted on them by now -- something I'm afraid of? Granted, I can't characterize the lifestyle a person chooses the same way I characterize, say, a food I dislike such as beets, herring, or sardines but I'm certainly not afraid of it, or them. And that homophobia which then in the nineties wasn't exactly shouted from the rooftops but now is in regard to almost any behavior or idea that is inconsistent with what a person, couple, or group wants isn't fear, it's a choice.

Welcome, viewers, to The Choice. 

Seriously, this would make a great game show. The only fear that you or I are asked to have in Scripture -- and the phrase "Fear not" appears three hundred sixty-five times, feel free to look them up -- is the fear of God, and that's not even the fear most of us think of! Not fear as in terror, not fear as in phobia (the word phobia is from the Greek word for "fear"), but fear as in respect -- Merriam-Webster defines fear as either "to have a reverential awe of" or "to be afraid of :  expect with alarm". But this is more than respecting or fearing fire because uncontrolled it can burn your house down; this is respecting the God Who in the beginning created the heaven and the earth. 

God is IN control and He's in no danger of losing it! You and I the created are ... and all too often do, if we're honest with ourselves. But do you know what, life happens. We are not required to let it make us bitter beings -- we are sinners, people who have consciously acted (that's "chosen" by the way) to defy God, saved by grace -- and that's why we have the safety valve of prayer, calling on the name of God about how we want to live, and whatever is on our minds, especially the fears we want to lose and are willing to give up.

And we're all students in transcending them,

David

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch, and I hope to encourage you too! If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please tell me -- thank you!

I praise and I thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even when we don't always know what they are. We pray as You ask for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides on the fence and all around the world.

I praise and I thank You, Lord, for all who are in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have along with the promise of new life in You! AND I pray that we are all seeking and are preparing to have the most blessed and blessing week ever! Amen.