Growing up, athletics and academics came very natural to me. I loved playing football, baseball, hockey, basketball, and soccer and became super competitive. Likewise, at school I was always trying to be the best. I ended up placing a lot of my identity in my ability and reputation as a student and an athlete.

Growing up in the church, I knew about Christianity, had heard plenty of Biblical stories, and certainly thought of myself as a Christian. From the outside looking in, I was a good kid living a normal adolescent life. However, my life was anything but God-honoring. Identifying as an athlete, I allowed locker room culture to dictate my actions. Over time this led me to objectify women, normalize/justify the use of pornography, and glorify partying. To compound this, my academic and athletic success nurtured my ego and led me into an arrogant mindset. The worst part about all of these issues was the fact that I was blind to them. The way I was living was perfectly acceptable to me.

These actions persisted throughout most of my time in high school. However, in the later part of my junior year, God placed a woman in my life who challenged my preconceptions of what it meant to call myself a Christian. Thanks to her prodding, I began to pay more attention, think more critically, and listen with fresh ears to what was being taught on Sundays and to what the Bible really had to say about God and about me. Over time, and thanks to many more people, I learned what Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was all about. He gave His life so that I could have a personal relationship with God the creator of the universe who loves me more than I can fathom. On top of that, He promises that through believing in Him, a seat will be saved for me so that I may spend eternity with Him. It was after I came to know these truths that I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and surrendered my life to Him.

After accepting Jesus into my life, I finally saw how detrimental my attitudes and behaviors were to myself and to others. After much battling, I have had victory in resolving many of these issues. Though the battle is not over, this has been amazing to witness. To finish up, the biggest change in my life has been understanding that by placing my worth in my performance as an athlete and student, I was selling myself short. My life has so much more meaning than what I accomplish on a field or in a classroom. In fact, since placing my identity in Christ, I view my life as an opportunity to extend the love of Christ to those around me in the hope that they may also know Him. Why? Because Christ’s love is not ordinary love. It is a love that changes lives. It is selfless and sacrificial and so stands apart in a self-centered world. It is a love that has given me life and has changed my identity. And I know it can and will change more.

Thanks and glory be to God for how he has/is working in my life. My prayer is that you too would get to know Him for who He truly is.
Ephesians 3:16-21