For a while, I guess I was willing to cut off the pieces of myself that would have expelled me from my faith community. But not anymore. 

Missing fractals make for an incomplete mosaic, and God did not leave me undone. He did not make me so that I could censor, cover, cut off, hide, what other people said I had to. 

He did not make me to please them. I exist to please Him.

And He never said there was something wrong in me.

There is a beauty in queer love, a warmth in queer friendship, a light that I only see in queer souls. He gave me that gift, too. It took me so long to see it that way, to recognize my queerness for the blessing that it is, and I have come too far to turn back now. 

I won’t be reduced to someone else’s idea of me. If they can’t see the beauty, the warmth, the light, then they don’t see Him.

If they don’t want me how He made me, then that’s fine. But conditional acceptance is an oxymoron I won’t justify, so I’ll let Him lead me somewhere safe, where all of me can exist as He intended, and I won’t lose sleep over leaving a people that left me behind.