First off, if you’d like to get some coffee or something of the sort and chat about more of what I mean by all of this or just talk about what the bible is all about, I am more than willing to make time to meet up!

My life has been marked by the great kindness of God amidst my own selfish desires and pride.

I didn’t necessarily have a typical upbringing, but man was it a good one! I grew up with a wonderful family who loved God and loved me a lot, and this is what I saw and knew growing up. With having two older siblings in wheelchairs, our home was a home where interdependence and being willing to lend a helping hand was a must. From my younger years, I have many memories of traveling around the US to different Christian conferences with my family and meeting hundreds of people who personally had their lives changed by Jesus, whom my parents and home church had taught me a great deal about.

One afternoon when I was around nine years old or so, after we just got back from church, I just couldn’t stop thinking about eternity and how long forever is and how scary it seemed. If there was a heaven and a hell what did that mean for my life? I didn’t want to be separated from God for eternity because of my sin, and I knew that Jesus had impacted so many people I had met growing up who were such amazing and wonderful people. So I asked my mom while she was doing laundry if she knew how I could accept Christ into my life, and if I then would get to spend eternity with God. Then there on our laundry room floor, my mom lead me in welcoming Christ into my life.

From then on my life was changed. I was forever assured of my right standing before God and my new identity in Christ. But even amidst knowing this, I willingly followed my own selfish desires in life and lived a life of double standards for a long time. Throughout my middle school and high school years, I was going to church and learning more about God and about my identity in Christ, but all the while living my life completely different outside of church. I would brag to my high school friends about things that I had done that I knew to be morally wrong and lived a life consumed by athletics, women, and academics. I only made time or space for God when I was at church, and my faith, which was still a huge part of my life, was playing back seat during the week to the rest of my life.

Then during college I had a crisis situation in which I was left completely broken and had to face the realities of the way I had been living my life. I didn’t have many close friends at this point in college and was away from my family, so I cried out to the only person I had left: God. In my dorm room, I came clean before God and just asked Him to help me, help fix me, help mend my broken heart and life. That night and the following week, I experienced the most profound shift in my life. God literally became my closest companion, and all of a sudden, I had a huge desire to read my bible on my own and spend time worshiping and praying with God.

From that point on, God has continued transforming my heart more and more day by day, and I have come to understand just who I was created to be and what I was created for: fellowship with the living God of the universe.