I began to see life in a new way when I became a Christian. For a very long time, friends and family members would constantly persuade me to come to church and read my bible to become proximate to something or someone that I couldn’t see. I just could not fathom what was so special about Jesus. If he was so great why there was so much destruction in the world today? I had mixed emotions on the subject that would lead to anger and division between me and my own family. Any time it had been mentioned I always tried avoiding the encounter.
I had been dealing with a lot at that time and it seemed as though my world was being tossed to and fro leaving me damaged and weak spirited. My mother would always drag me to church with her every Sunday and I would just arrive and fall asleep or constantly check my watch to see how long the pastor had until he was finished. However, on this particular Sunday I began to pay close attention to the words he spoke. It felt as though he was speaking directly to me, almost as if he knew my personal struggles.
After the pastor had declared his message was over, he gave an allotted time for an alter call. This was the moment in service where members of the church may come up to the pew and pray with one of the ministers. Normally out of habit and I would have gone into the restroom and wait there until it over, but something urged me to make that first step down that aisle. It felt like my heart began to melt and the moment become so precious and sentimental. I stood up and walked down the aisle to pray with the minister.
Before we had began praying the pastor came down to this minister and said I’ll handle this one. Pastor Larry, (my grandfather) looked at me with a smile on his face and said I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment. I told him about what had seemed to be terrorizing my life had and we prayed to God. Before we finished he asked me if I was ready to give my life to Christ. I closed my eyes, bowed my head and dug deep down in my heart, past he anger and the pain in search for the true answer.
I told him yes and on that day I received Jesus in my life. After service Pastor Larry approached me and told me to come to bible study on Wednesday night to learn more about the path that I have just chosen. He then gave me a bible and wished me well on my out of the church. As soon as I walked outside I looked to the heavens and closed my eyes and an imagined a face smiling back at me. At that moment I knew that something new was going on in me.
Later on in the week I began reading the first book in Genesis where it speaks about the creation of the heavens and the earth and I immediately found a problem. All throughout my life in school I had been taught it was the Big Bang Theory that created everything we see today. There were so many things that I just didn’t understand so I went to bible study with my mother for the first time. I asked the pastor was what I read the truth and he explained to me every word from cover to cover is the truth.
Now I began living with the mindset of church vs. ducation. Had I been lied to? What else have I been told that is contrary to the word of God? Now I began to challenge everything. This new found experience opened a door of curiosity that became my momentum. In my adolescence years, I would hear that after a person died they would proceed to heaven and live there for eternity. Soon after reading the bible I was introduced to idea of hell and the company it kept. Here was the place where you would find those that had rejected the calling to salvation, but that is not what I was taught.
All it took was one false idea to totally warp my thinking on what was the truth. Now that I have read throughout the bible, I have trained myself to believe with heart rather than just hearing a thing and taking for is word. This spiritual experience has not only changed my actions but has also modified my view on life. I felt as though I had been born into a new world filled with new rules and a new set of truths. I didn’t expect such a dramatic change from the beginning of my spiritual journey but I’m happy that it happened.
