I entered a church without asking God to change me

Dear Delyara, I left the church at seventeen after being told that my sexuality was a wound requiring prayer. For twenty years, I could not enter any church without feeling shame in my body. Last year, a friend invited me to a congregation that openly welcomed LGBTQ+ people. I stood outside for three Sundays before going in. Nobody asked me to explain myself. Nobody offered to heal me. The pastor referred to my partner as my family without hesitation. Today, I volunteered to read during the service. My hands shook when I approached the lectern because the last time I spoke in a church, I was confessing something that was never a sin. This time, I read words about love without mentally removing myself from them. Spiritual growth did not return me to the faith of my childhood. It gave me a faith where I no longer have to stand outside my own soul in order to belong.