God doesn’t promise to take away trans feelings

Miraculous healing from gender incongruence (like same-sex attraction or chronic pain) isn’t promised to faithful Christians.

That might be a hard word. But it’s also a hopeful one.

Because if we believe God is only good when He heals, then we’ll miss the deeper promise: that He is with us in the pain. That He uses it. That He forms us through it.

On The Living Church Podcast, Abigail Favale (the author of The Genesis of Gender) and I explore what faithful trans discipleship looks like, rooted in biblical gender and sustained by the presence of Christ.

For many trans Christians, the church has only offered two false hopes: “Just pray it away” or “Just transition and it’ll all get better.”

But what if neither is the promise God actually makes?
What if the most powerful testimonies are the ones where nothing gets “fixed”, but where Jesus is present in every moment of laborious obedience?

What if faithfulness means trusting God in midst of gender incongruence, not demanding He erase it?

And what if the biggest barrier to trans Christian thriving under biblical gender ethics isn’t a lack of obedience from trans believers…but the Church’s unwillingness to walk with them?

How can we become churches that:
– Understand and empathize with those who experience gender incongruence
– Teach biblical gender without clinging to cultural stereotypes
– Make space for trans Christians to grieve their brokenness
– Publicly honor the faithfulness of trans believers resisting temptation

Listen to the full episode at