Something that is constantly infused into most of our lives is faith, regardless of what prophet we pray to or believe in. With the constant turmoil that seems to embrace our society today, many have turned their back to faith and honestly, I was guilty of this until recently. It seems everything in life is trying to beat us down, laughing at us to give up and taking away hope at every chance. These feelings are too familiar for many of us today. All the heartache and deplorable acts of society has caused many to lose faith and start living regretful lives. With all the struggles and austere actions of society many of my peers have also struggled with their faith for various reasons, but we must never forget Luke 1:37: “For with God, Nothing is impossible."
Many of us are brought up within our parents’ religious views , molded by those values and morals as we mature, but with the breakneck speed daily life consists of many grow up without it. Unfortunately, some kids at a very young age are donned with the decision between parents of different religious views. In my case, it was a mixture of both with my parents beginning both busy and conflicting over which church to go to every Sunday, and this led to turbulence within the household. The final decision I ultimately made was not to attend any type of church in fear of tearing my family apart, which I ultimately stand by, because at a very young age I made a conscious decision that was the best outcome for not only myself, but my family as a whole.
Growing up in a prominently Christian community, my personal development was based on the values of my friends, who were mostly all very strong in their faith which transferred over to my own morals and values. Advancing through the ladder of education I noticed, unlike today, everyone stood for the Nation Anthem, bowed their heads in prayer and was not considered an outcast for voicing their beliefs in faith, a far cry from what students in primary school are growing up these days.
As we mature and develop through our lives, friends are one of the strongest factors that influence our development and ultimately who we are. Something that was different between me and my close knit of friends is that I never grew up with the experience of activities such as Young Life or mission trips, activities that all my friends would talk about when they came back, something I wished and longed to experience. The undying knowledge, the connection and sense of fellowship is something I somewhat grew without, but God sent me a remarkable set of best friends that reinforced good morals that kept me on the straight and narrow.
Fast forward to the present day, I have made major strides toward solidifying my faith and, in whole-hearted honestly, it took tragedy and cataclysm for me to notice that God was always with me, even when I did not notice, even when I sinned and even when I doubted him. Something I believe in is that God does not have time to answer every prayer, help everyone that is struggling or give guidance to everyone, but He gave us the Bible and each other.
Most of y'all know me as the extroverted, friendly guy that you can always talk to about your issues, but even people like me need help. Everyone is fighting their own battle and something I am guilty of is trying to help everyone else, but forget to help myself, causing me to hold in dejection, troubles and melancholy. This ultimately led to the downfall of relationships with friends, lovers and societal groups, which led to my doubtfulness of my faith and what great good was I serving. In the darkest moments of your life you will find out what you truly are made of. Going without telling my friends and family what transpired in my life was one of the hardest lessons I learned about life because I struggled with the evils of society on my own without the help of the most important people in my life and I payed dearly in happiness.
Something many know about me is that I try to be there not just for all my friends and family, but all of God’s children's which includes total strangers. Unfortunately through all the evils and deplorable acts that happened to me and my fellow peers, I questioned why it seemed that nefarious acts would happen to the best of souls. While I still do not have an answer to that, you can always count that God is with you and while you struggle, seek Him and run back to your morals, values and peers for guidance.
Throughout most of my college career I bounced between churches within almost every denomination, but nothing really stuck until I really need some Jesus in my life. I will be the first to admit that I have not made the best of decisions, but something that has not changed is that I am responsible for every choice regardless of the magnitude. People have judged me for my decisions, my faith and personality for all the wrong reasons, but I reached an intersection in my life that I found my faith, myself and most importantly had a stable faith base that I had to go fall back on. Currently that's where I stand now, finally reaching where I want to be in life successful within society, dropping thirty pounds and hitting the iron church and gaining deeper connection to my friends, family and faith. So much has changed in this short time frame since the beginning of last semester and I owe to the people that were there along the way the few kind, motivational words kept the force going inside of me.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3: 5-6
