The truth is, Christians have been subverting and challenging the heteronormative standard for centuries. In fact, it was the early church’s queerness that caused it to grow and spread so rapidly. The earliest Christians were known for their radical acceptance of people from every status, gender, and culture. They were chastised for the ways they redefined family, defied status markers, and cared for the poor and needy.

When I feel the most joyless is when it is most essential for me to practice joy, to seek out this Godly abundance. Not to disassociate. Not to demean my own suffering or the realities that have brought me low. But because God calls — compels — us to remember: the things that speak death over us don’t get the last word.

Many of us today approach faith with both longing and skepticism. Some of us grew up in church and are reexamining inherited beliefs; others are discovering spiritual practices for the first time. Many of us are deeply invested in questions of justice, community, meaning-making, and how ancient Scripture speaks into our own lives (or even if it does).