Stranger Than Fiction, 3

I turned twenty-seven in 1983 and suddenly I was beginning to feel mature.  Three years of professional caregiving had done a lot to age me.  In many ways I felt more like a younger forty than an older twenty-something.  I had come to see through the Self-Appointed Apostle and abruptly distanced myself from him.  He never forgave me (such Christian Love!)  I lost all the weight I had accumulated, began to take better care of myself and proceeded to move in the direction that I believed to be both right for me and from God, without any input from SPA nor anyone.   I bought nice, interesting and stylish clothes  I became involved in the anti-war movement and was soon writing letters, circulating and signing petitions and participating in protest marches.

I was fired from my job in June and devoted myself simultaneously to saving the world and writing a novel.  The World Council of Churches was convening in Vancouver that summer and I was attending plenary meetings and workshops all in the cause of global social justice, ending war, and ecumenism.  I heard Coralee Scott King, Martin Luther King's widow, speak about the movement towards peace and justice.  I learned about global interconnectedness.  It was truly an inspired and inspiring summer. 

During a Tuesday evening mass at snooty church, while waiting in silence on my knees on the stone floor following the service  I had a vision.  There was a newborn baby lying on the ground in its mother's blood, the umbilical cord still attached.  Then I heard God say in my heart, "The baby is born.  He is a weak, sickly and premature infant and he will be needing much care, much nurturing and much protection.  I am calling you to go out and dwell among your gay brothers and sisters where you will be bearing my light and love and hope to them.  You are not to preach to them.  I am not calling you to be a missionary, but to be with them in a spirit of love, hope and compassion."

I had no doubt then, and I still do not doubt, that this was the voice of God.  I felt inaugurated and initiated into a new and very strange part of my journey.