No One Walks Alone

June 30, 2026 - Queer Youth of Faith Day

Gwendolyn G. De Rosa

LGBTQIA+ Person of Faith

Quote

“I trade all I’ve known for the unknown ahead.”

~The Rings of Power

Devotion

Do you have a comfort movie? You know, one of those movies that you can watch when you’re stuck at home with a fever, or you’re going through a messy break-up, or something horrific happened in the news again. The Lord of the Rings (LotR) films are my comfort movies. The story of The Lord of the Rings actually begins in a book called The Hobbit. Hobbits are very simple people. They are not human. They are shorter, with bigger, hairier feet, and they live longer. Hobbits are gentle, quiet folks. They like gardens and drinking tea and music. They are not people who travel or go on adventures. But one day, a wizard named Gandalf visits a hobbit named Bilbo and takes him on an adventure.

In the Lord of the Rings, it’s Bilbo’s nephew Frodo who goes on an adventure to take the one ring to a volcano and destroy it. But he doesn’t go alone. He goes with a whole group of people, including his best friend, Sam.

There’s an incredible TV show called The Rings of Power that tells the story of how the one ring was made. In this show, the ancestors of the Hobbits are called Harfoots and they are always traveling. They don’t have a home, but they have each other. As they are walking together, they sing a song called This Wandering Day. And one of the lines is: “I trade all I’ve known for the unknown ahead.”

The narrative of wandering through deserts is an important theme in the Bible. The ancestors of our faith, and also Judaism and Islam, were Abraham and Sarah. They wandered through the wilderness until they came to a place that they could call home. It took a long time. About 300 or 400 years later, descendants of Abraham and Sarah got stuck in Egypt. They were trapped by an evil Pharoah, but Moses led them out of Egypt and into freedom. They had no home though, and so they wandered through the desert.

Jesus also spent 40 days and nights alone in the desert, wandering and wondering…praying and preparing for what God wanted him to do with his life.

I want to speak to the Queer youth who might be reading this devotion since it is Queer Youth of Faith Day. You are on a challenging faith journey. During your teen and young adult years, you’ll learn so much from school and books and YouTube videos and even social media. I hope you pay attention to the stuff that celebrates diversity, equality, and justice. I hope you ignore the stuff that invalidates your identity or tells you that there’s something wrong with you.

I hope you listen from a place of curiosity and wonder. I hope you ask questions, think about things for yourself, and talk to other people about their ideas and experiences and opinions.

I grew up in central Ohio. I grew up with a mom and a dad and two younger brothers. Church was a big deal for us. We were really involved at church and we volunteered a lot. I loved being at church. I loved reading my Bible. I loved singing and praying and learning about God. I even went to a Christian university.

But there were some things that I struggled with. My church thought that women could not be pastors or preachers. My church thought that gay people were not going to heaven. That being gay or Queer was a bad thing. And I didn’t really believe that was true. In college, I had gay friends and I know that they were not bad.

I didn’t go to church for a long time. I read about Buddhism. I started to practice some meditation and mindfulness. I learned about other religions and faith traditions. And I started to embrace my own identity. I’m bi, pan, and Queer and I think that’s how God made me.

When my wife, Felicia, started her journey as a Transgender woman, I knew I needed community. I needed people who would walk with us. I wanted people who would pray with me and for me. And that’s when we started attending King Avenue United Methodist Church, where I’ve now been on staff since 2016.

Young people, you will continue to have new chapters throughout your whole life. As you learn more and have more experiences, as you travel and go to new places and meet different people, you’ll change and grow. Your faith journey now is a continuation of your life so far and it will keep going into the future.

Finding people who will walk with you on your journey is incredibly important. You need people in your lives who will listen to you, cheer you on, and be an anchor for you during life’s unexpected storms. We don’t go through life alone. We have each other. And we know that God is always, always with us. No matter what.

Reflection

Who is your person or your people? Who makes you feel at home no matter where you are?

What messages have you been taught and what messages have you unlearned or are trying to unlearn?

Action

Look back at your journey of faith and identity. How have you changed and grown?