I receive a lot of questions about getting out of the gay lifestyle; well, it’s easy to get into, but very difficult to get out. For, over the years, I never knew one person, heavily into the scene, who suddenly had an epiphany, or an intellectual awakening, or a gradual realization that something was morally wrong. Like Saul, you tend to trudge along – oblivious to everything and everyone around you until that fateful day when you literally get knocked onto your arse. With gay men: this usually occurs when someone dies, you get a disease (typically an STD), or you mentally can’t stand the break-neck pace of none-stop homosexual hook-ups. Then, you collapse; like me, at that point, few know what to do next. In my era, most of my friends who came to this dark place – gave up: they kept banging until AIDS finally took them, they put a needle in their arm, or they simply surrendered that last little speck of themselves. A few saw something walking towards them, steadily and purposefully through the hopelessness. We crawled towards it – only moving a few inches. Then, we got scooped up, and were never seen in those miserable places again.
“The Lord wishes to cleanse you from the trouble of your sickness and to show you light after darkness. The good Shepherd, Who left them that had not wandered away, is seeking after you. If you give yourself to Him He will not hold back. He, in His love, will not disdain even to carry you on His own shoulders, rejoicing that He has found His sheep which was lost. The Father stands and awaits your return from your wandering. Only come back, and while you are yet afar off, He will run and fall upon your neck, and, now that you are cleansed by repentance, will enwrap you in embraces of love. He will clothe with the chief robe the soul that has put off the old man with all his works; He will put a ring on hands that have washed off the blood of death, and will put shoes on feet that have turned from the evil way to the path of the Gospel of peace. He will announce the day of joy and gladness to them that are His own, both angels and men, and will celebrate your salvation far and wide.” ~ St. Basil of Caesarea