I was not even sure I was going to ‘Infusion’ this last May. Stephen and Kim had mentioned it to me. I wanted to go but I did not want to deal with the pressure of feeling the need to walk around with a fake smile plastered on my face, pretending to be happy. Because the truth is, I was not happy. I was struggling with all sorts of questions and doubts. There was an intense anger burning in the pit of my stomach because I didn’t know what to do with knowledge about the Bible and God. I thought, “I know about God and about the Word and all that, but what the heck am I supposed to do with it?”
There is so much I wanted to do with my life, and still do. I want to make a practical difference in people’s lives. I want to be a friend not a judge, and to give. I thought the Bible required me to be a judge, but I wondered, “How could I judge anyone when I was such a sinner myself?” My struggle was taking me all over the place intellectually and emotionally. I didn’t know how to be me and be a child of God at the same time.
I felt like an impostor to everyone. To my non-Christian friends I was Continue Reading…
Posted 11 months, 1 week ago. Add a comment
During my summer before college I went to my first “party”. I had come to know Christ as my Savior when I was eight years old, but I had entered a temporary period of straying from my faith. When I got to college my friends and I would go dancing or to parties on the weekends. It was a lot of fun, but not necessarily what I wanted to be doing all the time. It was hard to stop, because my friends would always want me to go out with them.
I tried to fill my time with other things so I would have a good, legitimate reason why I could not go out. I started going to other school events; and I joined CA and Impact. I made many new friends with people who had other interests besides drinking. I began to hang out with them more often, so that I would not be tempted to go out. Just like my step-dad said, “If you want to succeed in life, surround yourself with successful people”. Proverbs 13:20 instructs us that “he who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm”.
I wanted to have a stronger relationship with God, and to be better example for others and better representative for Christ. With that in mind, I have been surrounding myself with spiritually strong people with similar values to mine. It was not easy at first, Continue Reading…
Posted 11 months, 1 week ago. Add a comment
Dexter at the Annual Phileo Party
Growing up I had what now might be called an “ordinary” religious background. When I was young I went to church with my parents. I didn’t really understand what was going on at that point. All I remember now was communion, and all I knew about that was that I walked up the aisle and kneeled down at the altar to get some flat bread and juice. I got baptized when I was a toddler and never really understood what it meant. When we moved from that neighborhood to our next house we didn’t find a new church to go to. When we moved to the house after that we still didn’t go back to church. My family and I would often feel uncomfortable and maybe even guilty when others talked about their regular church attendance. Now that I’ve started to branch out and learn on my own I realize what I’ve been missing out on.
God reached me in a way that only He could. Last October I was sitting in the Cooper Hall common area reading one of my favorite sci-fi novels. It had gotten to a part where the characters were talking about God when I thought “I really need to get back to God.” If I had been left to myself I probably would have just sat there and never followed up on that thought.
As soon as I had finished that thought, I saw two girls going around in costumes. Continue Reading…
I was not even sure I was going to ‘Infusion’ this last May. Stephen and Kim had mentioned it to me. I wanted to go but I did not want to deal with the pressure of feeling the need to walk around with a fake smile plastered on my face, pretending to be happy. Because the truth is, I was not happy. I was struggling with all sorts of questions and doubts. There was an intense anger burning in the pit of my stomach because I didn’t know what to do with knowledge about the Bible and God. I thought, “I know about God and about the Word and all that, but what the heck am I supposed to do with it?”
