What was life like before you met Jesus?
Before I met Christ, I was struggling with happiness and having a sense of belonging. I thought I was happy when I was with a friend group that lived for pleasure. I lived for partying, alcohol, drama, and countless other deviant activities. "It's the good life", I thought. However, when you live for sin, it leads you down a dark path. One day, one of those friends decided to start some drama, targeting me. When I was growing up, I was taught good morals, but I wasn't always faithful to those morals. I also wanted to be in a place where I felt like I had a sense of belonging, like middle school sports, high school band, and a friend group that tended to be troublemakers. And when you lean to the world for that sense of belonging, it never lasts. All it leads you is to a dark path, a downward spiral. So, when the drama started, I felt like I had a giant target on my back. Many of those who I thought had my back would end up going behind my back and talking badly about anything that came to their minds. They also questioned my loyalty to them, pressuring me to go to parties and doing things I flat-out refused to do in the past "to prove that you're cool with us." At first, I catered to them because they were all that I thought I had, but as time went on, I became more isolated and depressed. It came to a boiling point where I stood up for myself and confronted the group, but things sometimes don't always go how you want them. "Leave then, you were always a loser to begin with". That statement haunted me. Not only was I abandoned by my only friend group, but I've also lost all of my friends. All who I thought were there for me, they cut all ties off in an instant. I could never recall in my life a time where I was angry, depressed, lost, bitter to the world all at the same time. I was either mad or sad as I descended into a downward spiral.
How did you meet Jesus?
One day when I was feeling gloomy at work, I went by the guest services desk where a couple of my coworkers were tending the desk chatting to each other. As I was walking by, they saw me, asked how I was doing, and noticed that I wasn't looking too good. At the time, I was not ready to talk about anything that happened as I was still processing everything that went down, but they suggested that I should attend one of the Salt Company sermons that Thursday night to meet some new people. I thought about it, and I said, "Well, I have nothing more to lose, I might as well try it out," and the rest was history! On that night, I felt the Holy Spirit within me sparked into a flame. I felt like I belonged to something even greater than what I could ever imagine, an eternal union with God. It's almost like God has used my recent past so I could pursue him even closer. A section in Ephesians 2:3-5 states, "...among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved...". It was God who took me out of a dark path that was going to destroy me. It was God who enlightened me with His teachings. It was God whoshowed me His love and His mercy. And it was God who forgave my sinful past and gave me a new life worth living. All for this, He changed me to become an even greater version of myself through Christ Jesus.
After being saved by Jesus, what is your life like now?
My life has not been the same, but rather in a great way. Jesus gave me a firm sense of belonging and true happiness. Other than many worldly changes like moving out of my parents' home to a place of my own, increased work performance to the point of promotion, and pursuing hobbies while spreading the good news, just to name a few, All these good works are credited to Christ Jesus, who taught me all I knew and put me back on the right path. Christ now blessed me with a wonderful group of guys who actually care about my well-being and spiritual development. He blessed me with knowledge and wisdom that helped my confidence through situations I couldn't handle in the past. I am thankful for Christ coming into my life, being saved through His great plan, and to walk in the light with Him. Earlier in my journey through Christ, the first letter of John really stuck out to me. On one of the verses, 1 John 2:24-25 says: "Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this the promise that he made to us-eternal life". It cemented my passion to pursue Christ further. No matter how difficult my walk may become, I trust Christ Jesus by His word and His wisdom, that He paves the path with His light to what my current life is in this world to the next life, an eternal life with God.