All was going great, until I got the phone call.

DeAnn’s Story: 

I grew up going to church.  I heard the bible stories, we prayed before meals.   It was important, but it was church stuff, God stuff…It didn’t affect my everyday life.  In High School what mattered to me were my friends, sports, music and guys.  I tried to be good, make my parents happy and be happy myself.

When I got to college everything changed.  I was finally on my own and got to make my own decisions.  How was I going to spend my time?  What classes would I take?  Was I even going to go to class?   I went to a bible study for a while; I even went to a couple meetings of Student Impact, a Christian organization on campus.  Then I met him; a guy on the first floor of my dorm who soon became my life.  We spent all of our time together and I thought he was “the one”.  It didn’t matter that I was changing to be with him or that we had different values.  He made me happy.

All was going great, until I got the phone call.  It caught me by complete surprise when “the one” said it was over and that he didn’t want to be with me anymore.  I was devastated, and the world that I had created around him came crashing down.  When school started again, and I saw that it was truly over I looked for other ways to make myself happy.  I tried going to drinking parties, finding another boyfriend but it was all shallow and temporary.  Then a girl invited me to her bible study, and after a couple of invitations from her I decided to check it out.  The women in that study were different.  They had this joy in them.  God was a part of their lives.  I continued to go to the bible study, but also to parties.  It was like I was living two different lives.  Spring Break came around and the girls from the bible study were going on a trip with the student org the study was a part of, so I went along.  During this week I was removed from my double life, and surround by people who loved God.  I finally saw what I was missing, and decided to give my whole life to God.

You see it’s not about going to church, or reading your bible (although those are good things).  It is about a relationship.  God wanted to be a part of my everyday life.  He loves me and will never leave me…not like the guy I thought was “the one” did.  Suddenly the stuff I had learned when I was young and going to church with my family made sense.  Jesus loved me and wanted to know me.  So he died to take the penalty that I deserved.  And Jesus offered me the gift of salvation. I believe that when I was young I did accept that gift that he offered.  But it was that sophomore year of college, seeing what it truly meant to love Jesus, where I understood what it mean to have a real, secure relationship with God.

Getting back from that trip my life was different…and it still is.

 

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