Charles Michael Brill was born in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, in the Heart of Dixie. The world around him was filled with violence against protesters who were claiming their constitutional rights as equal citizens. Early in his life he faced death. He also lived through integration as part of the first class to be integrated in Mobile County, Alabama. For him this was eye opening, though at the time he did not realize the significance of what he was living and witnessing. He continued his education at Mobile College (now the University of Mobile) and Oklahoma Baptist University (BA) and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv/SW). These experiences broadened his world and perspective on life. He couldn’t yet deal with the fact that he was gay, as that was unacceptable to God according to his understanding (church’s teachings) of the scriptures.

He continued growing via new experiences like working in inner-city New Orleans and New York City. He was challenged over and over again about loving your neighbor. Because he did not love himself, he failed many times at this. All the while, he tried to overcome liking his attraction to liking men. He failed at that as well.

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The next 13 years he spent in ministry including Kentucky, in former West Germany (in what is now just Germany), New York City, Texas, Tennessee, and eventually back to his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. He went to counseling for over a dozen years in every place he lived in an effort to change what God had made.

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All the while he was slowly transforming from self-loathing to self-acceptance. All through his ministry, he witnessed the his beloved Southern Baptist Convention transforming into a more “conservative,” less tolerant, more restrictive denomination where all decision making became top-down. He realized that if the leadership knew he was gay he would loose his position regardless of how well he was doing. At the urging of friends and colleagues, he resigned from the University, leaving professional ministry behind in 1994. Painful as this was, it was necessary.

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The next, nearly 30 years, he has lived a life free of guilt for who he is. This freedom translated into significant success in the field of Financial Advisement, because, he believes, he was where God wanted him, but also because he was no longer hiding his true self. Today, this book is the result of the Holy Spirit guiding him to not give up, to trust the Spirit and be a resource to others who are going through this process, another time of intolerance where roadblocks stand in the way of those who dare to be different. Growing up one saying always helped him: tough times never last, tough people do. He didn’t feel tough, but Michael is resilient. Trust God, take one step of faith at a time, and you will be amazed at God’s presence in your life as a beloved Child of God, gay or straight, Trans or bi. God’s love will sustain you.