The Blessing of Discomfort

Friday, April 3, 2026 - Good Friday

The Rev. Brian Steele

Allied Person of Faith

LOVEboldly Board Member

Quote

“God loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The Rev. Brian Steele

Devotion

About 13 years ago I was sitting in a room with LOVEboldly folks, and it hit me: I am the only straight white male in this room. “Well,” I thought, “this is weird.” Truthfully, as I sat there, I realized what I was experiencing was actually discomfort. For the first time in my existence, my identity was the numerical minority in a space. Then the Holy gave me an even greater gift and I came to this revelation: “So, this is what it feels like.”

Truthfully, I still don’t know what it feels like to be a sexual, racial, or gender minority in any space. But that moment with our organization gave me a glimpse, and it was a gift. For anybody seeking to be an ally of a marginalized or oppressed group, if we never experience discomfort in our work, then we are not leaning into the work as much as we should.

Discomfort for privileged folk is a gift from the Holy. When we embrace that discomfort, we are growing in our capacity to know what it means to follow the living Christ. It expands our empathy and love of neighbor. I understand that I will never fully understand. I am a straight, white, cis-gender male. I’m never going to fully get what it means to be anything other than that. But embracing experiences that give us even the slightest glimpse of what it is like to be a minority is how we grow. Personally, experiences like these that have led me to Queer, Black, Feminist, and other theologies and has made me an even more passionate follower of Christ. They have made me want to take my faith out into the world even more. They have made me love Jesus even more.

Not any one sect of Christianity gets it fully “right” (whatever that means), but by embracing other understandings, we can at the very least get closer together. And that makes Jesus more beautiful in my view.

Allies, let’s get uncomfortable, and let’s embrace it as a gift. Amen.

Reflection

1.    When have you been blessed by an uncomfortable situation?

2.    How has discomfort caused you to grow in your faith?

Action

If you are a person of any privilege, go into a space where you are the minority and just sit and listen.

Without Love

Thursday, April 2, 2026 - Maundy Thursday

The Rev. Morgan Annable

Allied Person of Faith

Quote

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now, I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:31-35 (NRSVUE)

Reflection

Like many who might be reading this devotion, I am a huge theater nerd. One of the defining movies of my childhood was the film adaptation of Hairspray. There’s a song in the musical called “Without Love.” The lyrics say, 

“Cause without love, life is like the seasons with no summer. 

Without love, life is rock ‘n’ roll without a drummer….

Like a week that’s only Mondays

Only ice cream, never sundaes

Like a circle with no center

Like a door marked “Do not enter!”

Darlin’, I’ll be yours forever

‘Cause I never wanna be

Without love.”

Maundy Thursday is Jesus’s “Without Love” moment. 

Gathered with his friends the night before his death, Jesus tells the disciples (over four whole chapters) all the last things he wants them to know, including the new commandment he gives them: love. That’s all that’s really required of you: to love. Because without love, the rest doesn’t matter. 

A person I see embodying this kind of love in our world today is Alok Vaid-Menon (they/them). Alok is an activist, author, comedian, and poet, who often gets hate comments on their social media accounts. Alok finds ways to respond to those harmful comments with truth and love, often stating “you clearly have the need for my love!” and “hatred is love that has lost its way.” 

As an ally, such comments amaze and move me, seeing the ways that someone who has been the recipient of so much hate still expresses love in return. I am continually inspired by the acts of love I witness from the LGBTQ+ community, their resilience, and the ways such love changes our world. What a beautiful reflection of Christ among us. 

As we look toward the cross and the tomb, and eventually to Easter and the resurrection, we are reminded that love is really all that matters to Jesus. Even to the end, even in the face of those who wish him harm, somehow, Jesus continued to show love. Because it is love that transforms the world’s hatred, and it is love that changes our world for the better.

Reflection

1. What does the quote “hatred is love that has lost its way” (Alok Vaid-Menon) mean to you? How have you experienced this to be true in your own life?

2. How can you cultivate love for yourself today?

3. What boundaries do you need (for yourself and with others) for healthy love to thrive in your life?

Action

Practice a Loving Kindness meditation to cultivate love for yourself and those in your life. You can find a written guide to the meditation at A Baltimore Therapist’s Complete Guide to Lovingkindness Meditation (https://www.elliemillertherapy.com/blog-/a-complete-guide-to-lovingkindness-meditation). You can also search for a Loving Kindness meditation guide on YouTube or Spotify. 

LOVEboldly condemns Ohio House Bill 798: An assault on trans lives, introduced on the day set aside to celebrate them

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 31, 2026

Westerville, OH - Today, Trans Day of Visibility, one Ohio lawmaker introduced House Bill 798. The timing was not an accident. It was a statement. And we're making one too.

HB798 is a sweeping assault on the dignity, safety, and legal existence of Transgender and Nonbinary Ohioans. The bill would ban Trans people from using bathrooms, changing rooms, and overnight accommodations that match who they are. It would strip the ability to update sex markers on birth certificates, marriage certificates, and divorce decrees.

It would require sex as assigned at birth to be listed on birth certificates and death certificates, erasing a person's identity in the first document that marks their arrival in this world, and in the last document that marks their departure from it. And in a particularly cruel provision, it would protect employees who deliberately misgender their colleagues, enshrining disrespect as a legal right.

This is not a bill about bathrooms. It is a bill about erasure.

At LOVEboldly, we have spent fifteen years creating spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can flourish within their faith communities, spaces where they are seen, named, and beloved. We know what it costs to be unseen. We know what it means to have your identity denied, dismissed, or legislated out of existence. HB798 is the State of Ohio attempting to do precisely that.

The faith tradition we draw from compels us to name this for what it is: a failure of our common humanity and an act of targeted cruelty. To introduce this legislation on Trans Day of Visibility, a day set aside to honor Trans lives, Trans joy, and Trans resilience, is not merely insensitive. It is an act of contempt. It communicates, loudly and clearly, that Trans Ohioans should be afraid to be visible at all.

We refuse to accept that message. And we will fight this bill.

To our Trans siblings: you are seen. You are not a threat, a problem, or a political pawn. You are beloved. You belong in Ohio. You belong in our communities. You belong, fully and without apology. LOVEboldly stands with you today, on Trans Day of Visibility, and every day.

This statement may be attributed to the Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp, Executive Director of LOVEboldly.

About LOVEboldly

Founded in 2011 and celebrating its 15^th anniversary in 2026, LOVEboldly is an Ohio, faith-based nonprofit that exists to create spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can flourish in Christianity. Learn more about LOVEboldly’s work at www.loveboldly.org.

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