Welcome to the Paul Tripp podcast, where pastor and best-selling author Dr. Paul David Tripp connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

In this week's connecting clip of the week, Sam Albury discusses the first time he confessed his struggle with same-sex attraction to someone,

and how that pastor responded with God's grace.

This short excerpt is from a larger conversation between Sam Albury, Paul Tripp, and Shelby Abbott on the Connecting podcast.

To hear Sam's full story, check out the Paul Tripp podcast, episode 291.

Now here's Sam sharing a bit of his story.

So it's in my mid-20s, I started to think, okay, this isn't going away.

And I was a little bit mad at the Lord about that because I was thinking, come, I want to be a Christian husband.

I want to be a Christian dad.

That's a good thing, right?

That's a noble thing.

I'm not wanting to be a bank robber here.

You know, why aren't you giving this to me?

There was no good thing that was coming from these feelings of same-sex attraction.

It was making one or two friendships painful and complicated in ways I didn't want them to be.

And it was probably in my late 20s that I started to think,

okay, I think I need to reckon with this being a longer-term issue for me

to be wrestling with, and I'm not going to be able to deal with this on my own.

Where are we in terms of pursuing pastoral training and whatnot in those years?

I was in seminary, and just beginning my first job as an assistant pastor.

And still no one around you knew?

So while I was in seminary, I told my pastor at the time.

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