What was life like before you met Jesus?
I lived with my grandparents throughout my childhood, my parents were young and going to school and trying to make ends meet. They ended up splitting and pursuing their own lives. I never had any kind of relationship with faith. I just knew God was someone who controlled everything, and you could not see him. I was baptized in a Catholic church when I was ten. At the time, I did not pray or have any sort of relationship with anyone that I physically could not touch. I would ask people, if there was truly a God, why would terrible things happen to good people? If I lived in a broken family, who had no faith, why would I want to surrender my life to something that I could not see? Throughout high school, I started making poor choices for my health and relationships, and I was no longer taking things that were important in my life seriously. I became depressed when I couldn't recognize myself anymore, and I didn't think I had a life that was worth living. I graduated high school and felt the need to move away from my family and friends and have as little communication as possible with them because I thought that I could do everything on my own. I lived in a house with a roommate who was not a good influence on me and led me to make poor decisions. I was looking for anything that I thought could satisfy me just a little, but I would wake up the next morning feeling worse because I wasn't looking in the right places. I was searching for love and fulfillment in worldly things. I was failing college, and my roommate tried to convince me to drop out. This was my wake-up call. I found a small apartment on my own, moved my things, and knew I had to make a change. I started focusing on work and school daily. During my fall semester of my sophomore year, I met a lovely lady named Mikayla who just happened to get seated next to me in a class. We would walk out of class together regularly. Somehow we began talking about the topic of religion, and I knew she was religious because I saw the cool shirts she wore to class with crosses and words sharing that she loved God on them. She asked me if I would be interested in coming to something called Salt on a Thursday evening or meeting with a whole bunch of girls on a Tuesday. Initially I turned her down. There was no way I was going to join something I was so unsure of. She was persistent, she asked me again, and I would keep telling her I was busy. Luckily she still persisted. I ended up going to a connection group meeting. During the announcement time Annelise mentioned Salt Conference, and Abby got all wide-eyed and asked if I would like to go and showed me a video of it, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I went. Let me tell you, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. As I listened to how much these girls loved Christ with their whole hearts and lived their lives for him, I felt so lost, like I had missed out on something, and I wasn't seeing the bigger picture, but I knew the picture was good. Mikayla spiritually held my hand as she invited me to a panel with her about the sermon on the mount, and at first, I was very hesitant. I had never seen worship before. I asked her if they did these sing-a-longs all the time. I did not understand why people were lifting their hands up in the air and bowing their heads. Again, I felt the way I did at connection group, like I was lost and missing something that was a part of a bigger picture that was good. Then I sat and listened to what these people had to say about the truth, and I was moved. The Bible was actually making sense for once in my life. Sadly Mikayla moved, and I was taking these baby steps on my own, or so I thought.
How did you meet Jesus?
I took a leap and followed through with going to a Salt Conference with a group of strangers, I was completely terrified. I quickly got along with them, and once we sat through the first day at the Salt Conference, I had no doubt in my mind that God was real and that he called to me to find his followers and crawl home to him. I listened to the breakouts and soaked in as much as I could absorb, listening to real people talk about real things that I struggled with and how I wasn't the only person who struggled. I wasn't the only person who sinned and had strayed from God. It wasn't until the third day that I knew that God had been waiting 20 years for me. 20 years he waited, and I wish I would've known him sooner, but I trust in his divine plan. In Acts 2:21, it says, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” I had surrendered my life to him and now I live for him and trust in him. He offers the gift of eternal life, for he had sent his one and only son to carry the weight of the sins that he never committed in order to save us, in exchange for your faith. During prayer, I realized that no matter how far I had strayed from him, he was in control. He knows every sin I've committed because he’s seen it all. He knows the wrong I've done. When I asked him to take my life into his hands because I was surrendering it to him, a weight had been lifted off of me. I knew I was his and he loves me because I am his creation. His unconditional love could never amount to any love I could receive from or give to any worldly thing. The love that I never received didn’t matter anymore. I couldn't dwell on these worldly things because I had his love. His love is enough. He is my father and he loves me so much, and not just me, but every sinner that walks this Earth with me. I begged him for forgiveness because how selfish of me to do things to ruin the body that he created in his image that I had been gifted with. How selfish to think I thought my life was not a life worth living, and it was because I was living for the wrong reasons.
After being saved by Jesus, what is your life like now?
I now live for him. I am able to understand that I am a sinner, and I am broken, and God knows this. He knows I'm not perfect because I was never designed to be perfect. I know that I have a life worth living because it would be selfish of me not to because it is a part of his plan. I am able to fully put my trust in him because I know all of the challenges he has given me are a part of his divine plan because he is intentional, and he has created every fiber of my being with the strength to endure whatever mountains I climb and valleys I sit in. I know He is by my side in all that I do, Psalm 42:5 says, “Why are you cast down. O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”