I grew up in a Christian home and accepted Christ into my life at a young age. When I started school, I learned about who Christ is through religion class, Sunday school, and youth group. God’s story and what he did started to unfold as I grew up in the church. In 8th grade, my grandma was diagnosed with cancer and she passed away three months later. Through this difficult time, I felt alone and confused about what had happened. I started trying to find answers and searched for something that I could rely on, so one night I decided to read my bible. I don’t remember what passage I read, but I remember feeling God’s presence as I cried out to Him about the previous couple months. I felt God carry the burden of loss for me and to trust that even though bad things happen, He has a plan for my life. In that moment, I realized how much I needed to rely on God and trust the plans He has for me. I rededicated my life to Christ and started to live out my faith and have that personal relationship with Christ.

As I continue to grow deeper with Christ, He shows me how big of a God He is. He showed me of the joy that comes with serving Him and gave me a passion and a heart to expand the kingdom for His glory. In high school, I went on every mission trip I could go on and saw God working through my heart as he showed me His hands at work around the world. The passion I had for missions led up to me pursuing an internship to work in Paris, France between high school and college. During my internship, God showed me that even though France is a spiritually dark country and filled with lost people, He is moving through the lives of the French. The church I worked at had people with their heart set on actively seeing the kingdom grow. It was amazing to see God transform lives, but I often felt my life was not being transformed. I questioned why God put me in France and patiently waited for my purpose there to be revealed. Slowly, God revealed to me so much more than my purpose, He revealed to me that pursuing Him is not easy and sometimes we have no idea where the path is going to lead. But these times of trust drew me so much closer to Christ as He strengthened me in my worry. He showed me that in every situation, God is at work in my life and I need to patiently wait and trust that He will reveal the “why” in His timing.

I still struggle in chasing Christ’s plan above my own, as I worry about the future and the unknown of the where God is leading me. But as I let God have control of my future in my life, He bears those worries for me and I can rest in the future He has for me as I continue to chase Him.