I'm Soooooo Confused!!!!!

Matthew 18: 15 “If your brother or sister[a] sins,[b] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

I am really confused about fruit on the towers of a chapel

 Hello my friends,

    This week was one of those weeks in which I was presented with a situation that stumps me completely.  Let me describe to you what happened.

I don't understand how an emperor can make people do this

    I was with a colleague that I have been working with over the past few years having a normal discussion, when out of the blue he shares with me that he is getting ready to have a surgery that will change him forever.  The surgery that he is going to have will change him from a man to a woman.  Needless to say I was unusually speechless, and as most of you know that is difficult to do.  After my initial shock, I was very polite and didn't say much except to ask basic questions about when the surgery was going to be and how long the recovery would take.  At times like this I always remember a saying that my friend Randy Guista used to say.  The saying is, "Love the person and not their actions."  Now, I may not agree with what he is doing, but we have been colleagues and friends for sometime.  I will continue to respect him as a teacher and will support him in the classroom.
   Later, I was asked by a couple of my teacher friends what I thought.  I told them I had not really established an opinion as of yet.  The only thing I could say, was that I did not understand it.

I don't understand this, but probably could eventually

    So, you may be wondering why I am confused about this situation.  The reason I am confused, isn't so much that he is turning into a she, but that this man used to be one of the spiritual leaders on our campus.  Before we left to live in China for the year, he was the man that spent time with students leading prayer around our flag pole.  He would bring up at staff meetings students or people that needed prayer.  He has been a great man of God on our campus.  Now, I am not saying that he won't be able to take on this role as a woman, but the question that keeps nagging at me is this.  If we as Christians, have faith in God and are supposed to trust him, how is it that a person of faith can say that God made a mistake and change what God made?  I don't get it.  This is totally beyond my realm of comprehension.
    Understand, this topic is not about judging a person.  This is about trying to cope and understand how a brother in Christ can change so much.  I guess it falls into the class of, do we really know the Christians around us.  Have we lost community so much that we don't know what goes on in each of our lives?  Remember what Jesus said, “If your brother or sister[a] sins,[b] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. If he does it again then take others along to confront him.   This is great if you are in a faith community together, but if you don't pay attention, then that is as bad as a plank in your own eyes.
    I believe it is our own faults as a faith community for closing ourselves off from one another. Because in this case, I for one cannot judge or confront because I haven't been in his social circle in order to really get to know him.  Also, we have gotten so good at hiding the dark parts in our lives that many Christians look good on the outside, but are very troubled on the inside.  How often have we heard people say, when they find out a neighbor has done something out of the ordinary,  "He seemed like a normal guy, he didn't seem like the kind of guy that would do ........................".
    Sometimes I think that I make myself so busy that I don't have time for others.  I need to do a better job of listening and paying attention to other people.  I spent the week during my quiet times praying that I may be more aware of what is going on with people around me.
    My challenge to you this week is to take a look around and try to identify someone that is walking in the shadows, and ask them how they are doing.  You might be surprised what you get for an answer.