For all of my life, God has blessed me with His mercy. Being born and raised into a Biblically-founded household, my parents have sacrificed so much in their lives for Christ, and their faithfulness shined in the love they’ve given me, being that example for me to this day. I can’t appreciate it enough, and I wish I did sooner.
From the beginning of my upbringing, I’ve been taught the extensive truth within the Scriptures and what it means to live like a Christian, and so I was exceptional in acting like one. I’ve been involved in my home church between ushering and serving in the worship ministry. I don’t say this to pat myself on the back, but quite the opposite. It was easy to live as a Christian as far as it was convenient. I considered myself a Christian all my life, but it showed only in outward appearance. Towards the end of high school and my time in community college, however, my true colors began to shine.
I attended two years of community college before transferring to Cedarville University. From the end of high school to the time spent at community college was filled with short-term pleasures and long-term regrets. I lived a double life, one life as a “good person” with my family and at my church, and one life of hedonistic pursuit alongside my friends. I was Christian only where it was convenient, embracing temptation and sinful desires in the day-to-day moment. The person I was at church and the person I was with my peers at community college were entirely different people.
It was all a lie. I lied about the person I was to myself, my family, my friends, and before God. I praised Christ by my lips and denied Him by my lifestyle, and for what? Fleeting pleasure? Instant gratification? It only led to being miserable. The summer of 2020 was the turning point for me. I had reached lows I didn’t imagine I could reach. It was in this midst of a life of blatant and intentional sin that guilt, regret, and shame was flooding in.
It was God’s mercy that opened my eyes to what I was doing. I remember vividly the moment of realization of how much my sin had damaged everything around me. The feeling of not only how much I’ve lived in sin but how much I’ve willingly engaged in it was crushing for me. It was overwhelming, but it was necessary. I needed to make a decision whether I was going to continue living in sin, or place my faith in Jesus Christ as my savior.
It was the weekend before I transferred from community college to Cedarville University that I publicly proclaimed my faith in Christ and got baptized, embracing the faith as my own for the first time. Over the years since affirming my faith in Christ, I’ve become internally unrecognizable from the person I used to be. I’ve found joy and peace regardless of the blessings given or the trials endured.
This isn’t to say that my life has become miraculously better overnight. I still have a fair share of hardships to battle, weaknesses to overcome, and burdens to carry. Every semester at Cedarville has been a great experience in my spiritual walk, and I have many family members, friends, and faculty staff to thank for that.
Following Christ is not some generic list of good deeds to achieve. It’s a lifestyle to willingly submit to God’s Will for our lives, to pick up our crosses and follow Him. It’s not about how much you know about Christ, it’s about why you do what you do in your day-to-day life. It’s about what you’re willing to give up to bring glory to Him. It’s about being willing to stare in the face of everything the world has to offer, and say “no.”
I’m proud to be a Follower of Christ. I’m proud to proclaim that Christ is King and how He holds the utmost authority over Heaven and Earth. God mercifully gave me clarity to understand that He, the one and only God of the universe, brought about its creation, and sent His son, Jesus Christ, into the world to sacrifice Himself for the sins of humanity. He did this in order to give humanity the opportunity for redemption of sins, and to spend our eternity with the Lord in heaven if we as sinners repent from our sins, accept Christ as our savior, and keep His commandments as established in the New Testament. God provided this opportunity not because we deserved or earned it, but because of His love and compassion for us.
God is graciously revealing to me the truth and authority of the Scriptures, not by my own understanding but by Divine Interpretation and Holy Traditions of my spiritual fathers and forefathers who have kept the faith for the next generations of believers. Ultimately, I am a sinner that has been blessed far more than I deserve, and it is my turn to carry on the faith.
This is my testimony for now, but this journey will continue for the rest of my life. God has continued to use my friends and family as sources of accountability, love, and strength, and I cannot appreciate them all enough. The Holy Spirit continues to give me the strength needed to face these hardships. Christ has overcome sin and death. He sits at the right hand of God. Victory has already occurred. Every day has been a blessing, and God has provided each day as an opportunity to mold and improve me. While there continues to be moments of victory and moments of defeat, every day is a step closer to Christ.
In Christ,
The Cedarville Encourager