A Reason for Hope
A thoughtful perspective from our friend JoJo Ruba.
A few years ago, I was speaking at Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in Kona, Hawaii. I teach at an apologetics school there a week at a time, training young adults from around the world on how to explain the biblical worldview. Apologetics is about making a reasonable case for the Christian faith, including on issues such as sexuality and gender.
Of course, there are some perks to teaching in Hawaii, not the least of which is that after I teach, I can enjoy the many warm beaches that we don’t have in Canada! And that’s where I found myself on the last day of that trip. Sitting in the shade, steps away from clear blue water, I asked myself, “Why am I going back to Canada again when Hawaiians need Jesus too?”
Almost as if on cue, I overheard the family sitting directly behind me. Mom and Dad were talking to their adult son about his Christian experience. The son was sharing how many friends he grew up with, no longer identified as Christians. The family was at a loss about what to do. And if it wasn’t obvious enough that God wanted me to hear this conversation, the family was from Canada too.
Their sentiment wasn’t just discouragement; they were resigned at not being able to do anything about this loss. What they were feeling was despair. Despair is an unhealthy obsession with failure and feeling unable to make any meaningful change to reverse course. The Oxford Dictionary even defines it as the absence of all hope.
I hear and see this sentiment everywhere I speak, especially on LGBTQ issues. I’m often called to speak at churches and schools where even Christians are resigned to despair. They complain about government actions or church splits over sexuality. They even point to headlines that further limit religious freedoms or expand the “right” to immoral activities. Then they add something like, “But what can you do?”
This despair is growing as more young people take up this identity. According to Newsweek, 40% of Generation Z (30 years or younger) now identify as LGBTQ. Worse, 30% of church-going kids claim to be part of that community too.1
No wonder Christian parents and family come to me regularly wanting to know what to do now that their child or relative has come out as LGBTQ. I met a 70+-year-old couple who, through tears, shared that their 40-something son had left his three daughters and wife to live as a transgender woman. They looked dumbfounded and resigned to heartache for their son.
Those of us who experience same-sex attractions understand that despair even more. When I began to realize that I was sexually attracted to other men, I did everything I could to suppress those attractions. Eventually, the gay pornography I used and the fantasies of men that I engaged in, couldn’t be ignored. I faced the reality that this could be a life-long struggle. If I’m honest, there were nights when I felt so hopeless, that I wanted to give in to these attractions.
But as a Christian apologist, I knew that the biblical view was true. There is plenty of evidence for Christianity. More importantly, these good reasons provide hope for a despairing world. In fact, the primary verse that we use as our biblical mandate for apologetics is 1 Peter 3:15. Peter writes that Christians are to sanctify Christ as Lord and to be always ready to give a good reason or defense (apologia, where we get the word apologetics) for the hope that we have. We defend the faith not for the sake of looking smarter or for the sake of arguing but so we can give good reasons for hope.
It was that hope that helped me wrestle with my attractions. I knew from great stories from this ministry and others, that God can transform any heart, including those dealing with unwanted attractions. What was most compelling for me was when I came across CS Lewis’ definition of love as the reason for our hope. He defined love as seeking the best for others, which is what God did for us when He sent us Christ. We no longer had to live in despair that we could do nothing to change our situation because Jesus became a human to overcome every temptation to sin and to bring hope for change to every desperate heart.
In fact, Jesus’ resurrection showed that God can transform even the vilest societies. The early church created a community that Christian historian Larry Hurtado said was so compelling that Roman pagans converted when they saw the kind of love the Christian community offered. That love led to the banning of child abandonment, gladiatorial battles, and yes even restrictions on sexual behavior.
Just as Christ was the best gift God gave us, the church learned they too could love others in the same way. It made me realize that the attraction I had for men wasn’t love. Rather, if I truly cared for them, I needed to give them my best, which was to introduce them to the God who loved them more than I could.
It was the same hope that I shared with that elderly couple: you cannot change your son but God still wants the best for him. Continue to pray with the hope that God has proven Himself capable of raising dead hearts back to life.
Christians don’t have to despair that the world that we live in will always be the way it is. Jesus Himself promised renewal and that the pain and evil we see in our world today is only temporary, in comparison to the eternal joy we have in Christ. Rather than despair, we can encourage others to invest in an eternity where everything is renewed.
5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Revelations 21: 5
Jojo Ruba is a Christian apologist from Calgary, AB, Canada. Over the last 20 years, Jojo has spoken across Canada in front of many venues. This includes at secular universities, high schools and during Sunday morning services. He has professionally debated atheists, university professors and philosophers on issues ranging from abortion to the existence of God.
Jojo has helped start several successful local and national Canadian organizations. These organizations equip Christians and others to be effective in their daily dialogue on issues like the case for the resurrection of Christ, responding to moral relativism and defending a biblical view of sexuality and gender identity.
Jojo earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Masters in Political Science from Carleton University in Ottawa.
To donate toward JoJo’s book project.