My Spiritual Journey Part 2

When I got to college I thought I’d try the partying thing out. Adding this onto a few years of online chat rooms and consuming pornagraphy... I was in a spiritual spiral.

I was isolated and thought that I would do what the other college girls I knew at the time were doing. I wanted to be seen and known and this, I assumed, was the way to do so.

It was through a girl I was partying with that I heard the Gospel for the first time.

She invited me to go to church with her. We’d go to party on Saturday evening and then wake up and go to church Sunday morning.

There was a particular groggy morning where we were both leaning into each other listening to the sermon, that for me, something changed.

I realized that what I had been listening to week in and week out held a spiritual weight that I hadn’t experienced before. I couldn’t just idly take in the words each Sunday. My heart was changed through exegetical teaching of His word.

My love for His Word and truth was birthed here.

It was also here that I experienced true authentic community and where the Lord would birth in me a desire for everyone to have this. I found that part of being received in community meant that there was space for a story to be held - I had no idea how I would reflect back on this seven years later and that it would shape even more my desire for people to show up as He’s created us broken and all.

Seeing the Gospel lived out among this body of believers changed my life. It wasn’t just idle words. Hard, grief stricken things were shared and I had never experienced people so honest and well received. The quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi comes to mind “Preach the Gospel at all times. and if necessary use words.” It is not that our words don’t matter, but what people see us live out, our actions, as believers can say a lot more than our words.