"God became personal to me on a Friday night in the spring of my 8th grade year. Mom and Dad brought me to church from the start of my life, so God seemed familiar to me all along. Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Children’s Church—it was all part of my life. I was 5, or 6 when we had the Jesus talk, I prayed “the prayer” and was baptized. But, by the time I reached adolescence, the understanding of God I had as a 5-year-old was not big enough for my life as a teenager. Christianity was supposed to feel—joyous, free, content. But instead I struggled with guilt, insecurity, and inadequacy. I know—typical teen stuff, but I was a Christian and it was supposed to be different.
I remember praying at the close of a church service. I was telling God that I couldn’t figure out how to live the Christian life and I wanted out of our deal.
I don’t know how to explain it, except to say that God told me I was right; I couldn’t live the Christian life, but that He would live it through me if I would let Him. Galatians 2:20 became a theme verse for my life. It says “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
It was like God gave me permission to be insufficient and promised that He would more than make up the difference for me."
.JPG)