Is Christianity true and is it satisfying? The answers to these two questions have shaped much of my life.

When I was young, I didn’t think too much about it. From my earliest memories I was immersed in a knowledge that God created everything, Jesus loved the world, and he died so our sins could be forgiven if only we relied on his death.

I believed completely…at first. But then I wondered.

The older I got, the more I was confronted by opposing thinking. What about science? Evolutionary theory? Other faiths? The historical record? Was there solid evidence or just a blind faith in a hoped-for idea?

My doubt nagged me for years, but I still tried to live faithfully to what I believed a Christian faith dictated. I was motivated to follow my conscience and to do what I believed God would want.

While overall I enjoyed life, there was another nagging feeling that my efforts to follow God deprived me of life’s best. The more I followed Jesus, the more times I would miss out on pleasures of the world. Being a Christ-follower, it seemed, ultimately would limit my fun.

There was one point where I remember sitting alone, with tears in my eyes, wishing I had not yet become a Christian. Of course, I like that my sins were forgiven freely because of Jesus’ work on the cross so I could enjoy Heaven after I died; nothing was more important than that. But I also wanted to experience all the pleasures of life while on earth, and I felt my faith was getting in the way of that. I figured the best possible situation would have been to live it up on earth and then late in life, come to Christ and receive forgiveness and eternal life. That would have given me the best of life now and forever. But that wasn’t how it worked out for me, so I was feeling sorry for myself. I feel a little silly admitting that now.

It wasn’t for a number of years that I came to see how wrong I was.

Both of my nagging questions were majorly alleviated while in college.

First, I began to read and be exposed to a lot of the compelling evidence for Christianity. This was important to me, because ultimately I wanted to live in accordance with reality. The story of the Bible, including the miraculous resurrected Jesus, best fits the facts we know. There are times I still wrestle with various aspects of faith, but when I slow down and think through philosophical, historical, scientific, scriptural and experiential evidences, etc, I’m reassured that the Christian faith does the best job of explaining our world and the human condition.

Second, I not only see Jesus as the ultimate reality, but I also realize that his plan is the best and most satisfying, sparing us from many of the consequences of bad behavior. He’s designed the world, and the better we follow him and live in accordance with his pattern of life, the better all of our lives flourish. Like no other, Jesus meets the enduring satisfaction our hearts really crave.

For me, having the answers to my two questions gives me a peace and a compass by which to orient my life. I hope you, too, discover the trustworthiness and satisfaction of knowing Jesus Christ.