A Powerful Experience

This has nothing to do with biking, however I wanted to talk about a recent powerful experience. We went to a service where the assistant ministers were gay. One of them got up and spoke about her experiences at another church. A few years ago, she felt ostracized by the church that she belonged to. At that point, she was devastated and deeply depressed. It took several years to recover; however she was eventually able to attend another church. She feels very strongly that the second church, which accepted her, "saved her life." This all occurred somewhere in the South.

She is now a visiting assistant minister at a church in Santa Cruz. She spoke about how important it is to be non-judgmental. It was clear that she was incredibly thankful to find a church that accepts her for who she is, regardless of her sexuality. She ended her talk by saying very slowly and dramatically, "at this church, we never, never, never, never, never, never, never judge others." She did not raise her voice, yet somehow she was able to build a little more emotion into each successive "never". She paused after every "never" letting the impact settle in. You could tell that this emotion was erupting from the very deepest part of her being. The impact on me was very powerful. Like waves crashing on rocks, the "never's" were crashing off of me.

This occurred several weeks ago, but is still very clear in my mind. Even now, I get choked up just writing these words. wow