"An Unavoidable truth"

I very rarely take the time to read the newspaper, and even more rarely do I pick up the "opinion" section of the twin cities paper. I normally scan the front page and take a peak at the "taste" section. But this Sunday I saw the headline of the "opinion" section and became curious.
The phrase in bold "AN UNAVOIDABLE TRUTH" located below a drawing of a shoe peaking its way through a door just barely open.
The drawing seemed hesitant, as if the shoe was securing the area for the person who would soon follow.
I began to read scanning the highlighted sections first, I soon found myself lost in a very well written editorial on how the sanctity of marriage is not being destroyed by same sex marriage but rather by the conservative cultural movement. I was not surprised to hear this but I was intrigued by the approach taken, like the picture the editorial began hesitantly with careful boldness.
It hit home because that morning I had learned that the Professor that I had most look up to at my small Christian college, was struggling with homosexual tendencies. She is a Pastors Child like me. I had related to her in so many ways because of her love to write. Her teaching was inspiring and challenging. She challenged us to write honestly and not to be afraid of the page. For our final we had shared a potluck at her house in the cities, She was married to a quiet artistic teacher. Her life had seemed so appealing.
Now as I stood in a coffee shop a few lines into the editorial my eyes fell on the author. My professor's name stared back at me in a cold reality that only printed words can produce. The coffee shop was crowded with highschool boys seeking refuge from the parade that marched by in the street out front.
My world tilted for a moment as I sat down. My professor and friend was not struggling with tendencies, she was openly coming out of the closet. The picture made sense now, the well written hesitant words, I understood. She was writing from the perspective of a former conservative not an angry liberal. I read on taking breaks to try to understand. She chastised the church for judging people like her who were born this way, she wrote about the grief it had caused her family, and she compared the limited freedom of homosexuals to the suppression of African Americans.
I wavered between my admiration at the honesty in the words to disgust at the lies. She closed by stating despite all that she had lost(including resigning her position at the college) she never felt more free. The final sentence was, "It's kind of like that one guy once said: "and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free". "
So why am I telling this story. Because my heart is aching and I need to release, but also because of TRUTH. My professor was still a great impact in my life, but she is not nor was she ever my source of truth.
We are a people called to serve a God, not follow the latest christian opinion. We live in a world where truth is being twisted on the street corners and under the steeples. We can not afford to simply be casual about truth.
I feel so fragile as a believer right now. So utterly aware of my own sinfulness. There is a part of me that wants to circle the wagons of my life in order to set up barriers so that I will continue to pursue Christ. THAT however is not the life God called us to he called us to one of freedom, but FREEDOM FOUNDED ON TRUTH. It is easy to ban together in the safety of the sanctuary lest we stain our hands with the pain in the world, but this Christian life is not one of safety. It is one of truth and one of abundance.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more then all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." Ephesians 4: 20