Truth, Identity, and a Conversation with God

I was praying this week about how to teach truth—not just facts, but how to live truthfully and have hard conversations without losing love or clarity.

That led me down a path I wasn’t expecting: I started imagining a respectful, honest conversation with someone who identifies as transgender.

Here’s what God showed me: real truth doesn’t change. But if we’re going to talk about it with anyone—especially someone who disagrees with us—we’d better start by understanding the difference between what is objectively true and what is true for them in terms of their lived experience.

For example, it’s objectively true that almost every human cell is either male or female, and that no amount of surgery or hormones can rewrite that DNA. That’s a scientific, biological truth.

It’s also true that our minds can latch onto things that aren’t true—and when that happens, we can feel deeply uncomfortable in our own bodies or identities. That’s a mental and emotional reality, even if it doesn’t match the biological one.

And then there’s this: if someone feels like they don’t belong anywhere—not fully male, not fully female, not fully accepted—it’s understandable that they’d cling to the one place where they do feel accepted. Often, that’s the LGBTQ+ community. It makes sense they’d feel protective of that.

What hit me hardest was this: if I speak the truth with no compassion—if all I do is yell “There are only two genders!”—then from their point of view, I’ve made myself the enemy. And honestly, if our roles were reversed, I might hate me too.

God’s not asking me to change what I believe. But He is asking me to care enough to understand the person I’m talking to. Not to agree with them. But to recognize the pain, the confusion, and the deep desire to belong that might have led them here.

Truth isn’t relative. But compassion is required.

Someday, I’ll probably write more about this—because it deserves more time, more prayer, and more care than a short blog can give. But for now, this was the conversation God and I had this week.