Before Jesus Changed My Life
When I was born, my family took me to church, where I was baptized. Growing up, I still went to church until we moved houses when I was 6. The drive from church went from being 5 minutes to being 25 minutes. Once in a while, my grandma would take my siblings and me to church. When I was in middle school, there was a program called Awana. It is for the youth that involves bible memorizations, which I didn't like because I hated reading, discipleship, and evangelism. Starting in 7th grade, I started to feel depressed. I think it was due to the fact that I didn't really socialize and kept to myself. I just went through the motions of life and “bed rotting.” In my Junior year of high school, my grandma had me take the steps to get confirmed in the church. Back then, I didn't like the idea because it took time and took me away from what I wanted in the world. I got confirmed, and I would say that I was Christian, but I didn’t really know what that truly meant. When I came to college, I went to orientation, and there was a booth that offered a Bible study. I joined and started to learn about Jesus.
How Jesus Changed My Life
During my time in the Bible study group, I met a guy named Kyle Jones. He was a teacher who helped teach college kids the Bible. We studied through the gospels, and when we got to the parable of the lost sheep, I started to understand the gospel. Kyle started to explain it, and as he explained it, I started to fall in love with Jesus as the shepherd and how he would leave the 99 sheep to find the one. I realized the one sheep that was missing was me. Then, when he found the one lost sheep, he rejoiced. I found it sweet knowing that I was lost, but when God found me he rejoiced. After college, I moved to Iowa to work for Peterbilt as a body tech and I didn't have anyone, I didn't have my church to go to because I didn't know the area. I felt more lost and more depressed than ever. I was working with a guy for a part-time job, and he arranged for me to meet a girl my age. We met and it went well and she invited me to Veritas. I thought I had it all until we broke up and I started to feel lost again. Things were different this time because I had a church to go to. I was invited to Salt kickoff and went and got involved in a connection group. Looking back over that time, it is clear that God is in control and how he worked everything together for my good.
My Life After Jesus Saved Me
I went to fall retreat and was still struggling with idols, but Danny and other Salt leaders encouraged me to follow Jesus even through the struggles. It opened my eyes to the idols I had and worked to focus more on Jesus and what God was trying to show me. I became less depressed and felt more happy than I ever had been before. I took gospel 101, and I learned why I should be baptized. I felt like I wasn’t ready, but after talking with some Salt leaders in connection group, they helped me realize that I will never feel good enough to be baptized. Baptism is about being obedient to Jesus and showing the outward proclamation of the inward change. God is in control and put me in a place where I have people who want to help me follow Jesus and continue to grow.