My great friends.

In my last post, I wrote about my friends, my roomoate especially, driving me crazy. This post is positive. First, starting with my roommate: He's been a great encouragement to me in my struggle. He also has problems with chastity, and has been much more successful than I at overcoming them. He has pointed out to me good things about myself and tried to help me "love myself" in the Christian sense. Also, he charges me cheap rent!

In spite of the fact that I'm kind of a loner, my friend Larry indefatigably invites me over to his house to hang out, let's me know when the guys are getting together, and does his best to get me involved.

Marty is the most loyal person I know. He'll stick by you no matter what. He's like the grass: if you crush him, he gets right back to the business of growing. He prays for me and tells me he loves me. Here's a funny story about him:

Once, when I had just started being honest with myself and my friends about my sexual orientation, he asked me, a little nervously, whether I had found any guys in our church group attractive.* I told him I had, but had made a conscious decision not to lust after any of them because doing so would have warped my view of them. (I'd made that mistake at the last church I'd attended.)

Marty: "What about so-and-so?"

Me: "Oh yes, he's cute."

Marty: "What about ------?"

Me: "He's hot! But I still don't allow myself to lust after him."**

Marty: "What about me?"

Me: "Well, truthfully Marty, I am not attracted to you at all."

Marty (in a huff): "Well my wife thinks I'm attracive!"

I love that he got offended!

These are the guys I hang out with regularly. I love them. They're good friends.


There are a few friends I don't see very much because they moved out of town. I miss them terribly. My friend Danny, who was like a brother to me. I used to know him like the back of my hand (but not know in the Biblical sense; he's straight, after all). My friend Kim who was my best friend in high school. She tells me if I ever go straight to let her know because she'll marry me. Matt who was not afraid to share deeply shameful things about himself with me. My friend Steve who is the most intellectual of my circle of friends, although he's not comfortable with that moniker. He and I started learning about the ancient faith around the same time.

I'm thankful for each of these individuals. They're good friends. May God richly bless them!


*At this point I was still an Evangelical. I had attended for a few years a church which had a group, an excellent group, for twenty-somethings. I was not attending this church any more when Marty asked me this question. (I was in a different church, a few years away from being Catholic still.)

**And that can be difficult because this particular individual is HOT!