Dysphoria.

I was given that word today.  I had to google it.  There are lots of results to that word search.  But pinning down just that word comes back with “living in great distress”. And is the opposite (literally) of “euphoric”. Which I found easier to “get”.

I know euphoria.  So I cannot imagine living the opposite – or for much of the time – or even some of the time.  I know the word euphoria – and I would not want the opposite.  I have the occasional flash of dysphoria – and would not wish it on anyone.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Isn’t that the “why” of this well-known verse?  Isn’t that promise of this verse?

“I will give you rest”

And in the receiving – I will be healed – I will become who I was meant to be – rather than who I was told I must be.  I will find the courage to become who I am – and in so doing I will be at rest with myself and you.

“Come to me all you who are dysphoric, and I will give you rest.”

I was given the word in a post about “gender dysphoria”: when I am in distress with the gender I have been given, as opposed to the gender I am.  Clare Flourish, “Trans Identity” gave me that phrase today.  And GSHJ gave me the rest:

“Come to me all you who are dysphoric, and I will give you rest.”

* What difference is there between the dsyphoria of “who I was” – compared to the healing of “who I am” now?
* What difference is there between dying to self – and dying to “gender dysphoria”?
* And what difference between a God who offers “rest” – and a bunch of rules that offer the opposite of euphoria – as a way of living – a living in great distress?

Isn’t that why we each follow?  Isn’t that why each claims relationship with (in my case) GSHJ?  That we have each become “Who I am meant to be, who I was born to become, who I am in all my loving potential”?

Doesn’t our God offer “rest” – the opposite of dysphoria – to all?

Ahhh … but the rules.  That say we must pass by on the other side if a man desires a man, or a woman desires a woman, or a woman desires to be a man, or a man desires to be a woman. The bible says that we must all walk by on the other side – the bible says who we can cross the road for – and who we must not.  And in this case “definitely not” for one living in gender dysphoria.

(like what we all were at one time before being “saved”: spiritual dysphoria)

Clare has given me the final piece in a jigsaw that my GSHJ has been constructing for some time.  A jigsaw of which each disconnected piece has screamed “wrong”.  A jigsaw of which so many think not “wrong” – but exactly “right”.

And now that jigsaw is complete …

To refuse same gender relationships IS passing by on the other side.  IS telling another they can be saved but they must continue to live in dysphoria.  IS saying one rule (that we say) IS a greater rule than the greatest commandment of these.  IS us telling the God we follow that He has it wrong.  Because … 

There was an old covenant.  And now there is a new covenant.  The bible says so.

The same bible (and new covenant) that DEMANDS each follower crosses the road for another living in dysphoria – that invites us to care without the old covenant being the standard of care – that invites each of us to not just tick boxes but to BE the new covenant.  Not just intellectually or “theologically” – but to live – to BE – to BECOME the new covenant – to be the “greatest of these”

Well, here we are.  Right here and right now: Today’s “Good Samaritan” reality.

Do you desire to BE and BECOME “the greatest of these” … or do you judge when and with whom?  Do you reserve the right to stick with the old and “thou must and must not”, when the “greatest of these” is a road-crossing too far?  And did Jesus do that for you – a weighing up of whether or not you are worth it?

Today it is your choice.  Because that IS the greatest of these: Your Choice.

“Come to me all you who are dysphoric, and I will give you rest.”

Was me.

What about you?

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NB: my bible bit

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