I recently had lunch with a sweet group of girls just like you. When I asked them what they thought I should write about the topic of homosexuality, they overwhelmingly agreed that they wanted to hear stories of people who had turned from that lifestyle. They told me about their friends who were struggling with homosexuality, and they said that those friends felt like there was no way they could change. My lunch buddies desperately wanted stories of radical change to share with their gay friends. Meet Rene. She is a former homosexual now serving Jesus in full-time ministry. I couldn't wait to pass her story on to you because it is a beautiful testimony of God's ability to redeem all things. It originally aired on Revive Our Hearts radio with Lies Young Women Believe author Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. Check it out:
Nancy: We've talked about living in a culture where there's such confusion about gender, sexual identity, and the havoc that that is wrecking in women, younger and older. As we were talking about that, Rene, you just came to mind. Rene now serves on the staff here at Revive Our Hearts. You are such a neat illustration of how God has radically changed your whole view of what it means to be a woman and sexuality. I don't know what might be on your heart to share about that.
Rene: Well, I have actually been a believer for the last three and a half to four years. The Lord radically changed my life, and I mean radically. It was basically overnight. I had been involved in the homosexual lifestyle for 11 years. It absolutely broke my parents' hearts; it devastated them. I was raised in a Christian home, but yet walked away from the Lord. I wanted nothing to do with that. I was very angry with the Lord because I thought that I was born that way. I didn't understand the conflict that I was having in my heart. "Why do I feel this way?" And yet this wasn't necessarily a choice that I felt like I was making, but in actuality, it was. I was taking my thought of who I was as a woman totally from the culture. I was not looking to God's Word and opening it up and saying, "Who am I? How do you see me?" My parents prayed for years that the Lord would bring me to the end of myself and that godly influence would come in to my life and that I would be receptive to that. It was a very, very hard process. I completely turned my back on my parents. I wanted nothing to do with them whatsoever. I embraced that lifestyle. I was basically a poster child for that lifestyle. The person that is in front of you today is not that girl at all. It's very easy, almost scary, that I can talk about it because it is like I'm talking about somebody who doesn't exist. I have no idea who that girl was. But I was just very confused. I was involved in athletics. I excelled as an athlete. I was recruited in college by almost every Division I school in the country. So I was a very successful athlete. Yet in the culture, that lifestyle is celebrated and glorified. I embraced that. I was somebody there, and I desperately needed an identity, and I found my identity there. I longed for acceptance. I excelled in the classroom, and I excelled in sports. So it was difficult for young men to talk with me, and I made it that way. I was very unapproachable. I never knew how to form relationships with men.
That's just the first part of Rene's story. The rest is a story of redemption that you won't want to miss, so be sure and hop back on the blog tomorrow. But before Rene shares her journey to freedom, I want to take some time to discuss the influence that culture is having on you. Rene said she took her cues about womanhood from the culture. She's right; we live in a culture where homosexuality is celebrated. We are also taught that people are born gay rather than choosing that lifestyle. What lessons have you learned from culture about homosexuality? What have you learned about what it means to be a woman? These are questions that aren't always easily answered. Because we are exposed to the messages of our culture so often, we don't always realize what we've been taught. But I want you to think critically for a moment. What has the World taught you about whom you are? Those messages may not impact you in the exact way they impacted Rene, but they may lead you to believe lies and reject God's truth in another area. Tell us about it and don't miss the rest of Rene's story tomorrow.