Before Jesus Changed My Life

Before I found Jesus I was drinking almost every day, sleeping around, and doing everything I could to defy God. I had some things happen in my life like the death of a close friend, a bad breakup, etc. that I thought gave me the reasoning to do all these things. I had the thought of what God punishes like this. But through this all, I had a sense of emptiness, almost as if something in my life was missing. I tried to fill that hole with material things like alcohol, sex, and personal and selfish accomplishments.

How Jesus Changed My Life

I began attending church when I hit college in my sophomore year at Coe (2024-25). After the school year ended, I didn’t go to church all summer. When I came back this past fall, I attended my first service since the spring, and it felt as if a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Since then, I have had the urge and craving to be saved and to be closer to God. God calls people to come to him and to move away from sin, as talked about in Romans 6:11-12 where it says, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” I have been in the Bible continuing my learning and continuing to become a better Christian as a whole.

My Life After Jesus Saved Me

I don’t feel like my life is out of my hands, and it is now safe in God's hands. For me, I don’t have the urge to get super drunk or to sleep around or to do anything to defy God in any way. I crave to be in his Word and to follow him for the rest of my life. I have been able to put God above all which is something that I really struggled with when originally beginning my journey as I thought there was nothing above my family but over time I began to understand why I put God at the center and that is that he can’t wrong me, he can’t betray me, he can only do good in my life.

I have found eternal life within God and the passage that comes to mind for me is one of the first things I ever read when beginning to open my bible with that being, Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". Another one is Romans 2:7: "To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life". When beginning to read the Bible, these passages really stood out to me and were discussed a lot between me and Joe Dufoe, who leads my bible study. 

The Lord has brought me so many people who believe in my journey and have fueled my want to be both in this amazing community as well as be closer to God. The people I have met at Salt Company, my bible study leader, the friends I made freshman year of college who have not given up on trying to make me a believer, and the other amazing people that I have that hold me accountable when I sin or am struggling without making me feel guilty or like I should be afraid to share. Learning to hate my sin has been fueling my journey as I want to work to be a better Christian and therefore hate my sin and want to change and move away from it. Talking with Danny, Ian, Sam, and other people within Veritas openly and not being shamed for having doubts when starting to attend Church but instead being told that God will save me and explaining why they choose to believe and why I should believe.