MY STORY: PART I

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

It has been a simultaneously refreshing and challenging last few weeks. The Lord has been pulling on my heart in a multitude of ways. While His call looks different in many ways, the message of His word to me has a heavy common theme: come closer.

I have been a ‘christian’ for basically all my life. I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was only five years old at Vacation Bible School at Trinity New Life Fellowship Church in Arlington, Texas.
I remember very clearly listening to the gentle story of who Jesus was and how He wanted to be my friend, in the utmost sense of the word. The understanding I was able to have was small, but so profound. I knew who Jesus was. I didn’t even know yet who I was. But I knew I needed Jesus to be my friend. To hold my hand, to care for me and protect me. To be my best friend. I knew I needed Jesus. That evening, I prayed with both of my parents, laying on their brown quilted bedspread, and invited this Jesus to come and live in my heart and be my best friend.

There are millions of people wandering through this life that share a very similar story with me. People who become christians at a young age, try to be good and keep God in mind as they grow, wander away as soon as they face any real kind of temptation, and then flounder in the face of the world as they continually hesitate becoming who God truly set them apart to be. The journey of my life has been very easy, on anyone’s terms. I have a wonderful, loving, functional family. I have never been anything but loved and accepted completely by my family and friends. I have found success easily in school and beyond into the professional world. So, the reasoning for my utter mediocrity as a christian, as a child of God, is puzzling to me. I don’t have the excuse of life being cruel to me and then in turn, me equating uncomfortable circumstances to the existence of an apathetic, or worse, a cruel God. Life has been generally comfortable and blessed for me. So what reason is there that I run and hide from the God who has blessed me so greatly? Why not run to Him and thank Him for my life of abundance?