I was born. I guess that’s a pretty good place to start
I was Christened in the local parish Church of Scotland on Christmas Day 1987, which I guess is the Scottish Presbyterian way of saying I was baptised, dedicated, or confirmed as a child.
After that, I guess not much appeared to happen. I remember being taken to Sunday School and summer missions, which I remember hating (the former) and loving (the latter). When I got to a certain age, I can’t remember when exactly, my mum allowed me to stop going to Sunday School and have a long lie instead! Great!
However, getting a long sleep on a Sunday morning didn’t last long and during the later years of primary school I took up rugby which involved running around a cold field in tiny shorts in the snow (mostly). This lasted for about three years until I realised: I couldn’t see the ball without my glasses, I didn’t like running around in the cold, and I wasn’t beefy enough to play.
So, what should I do instead on Sundays?
I found myself again at the local church for some reason, I think my sister was in a nativity or something, and I was talking to one of my sister’s friend’s mums. She got onto the topic that I was now in first year of high school and that she ran a youth club on Sunday mornings for people my age. So I went along.
It was called Navigators and it consisted mostly of kids from a high school just down the road and another girl from my school. I think there was about eight of us in total, possibly including the leaders. Every week we would follow a bible study and questions from those cheesy Sunday School teacher books with original names like “Salt” and “Light” whilst being fed with delicious home-made chocolate cake. Throughout the few years I went there, I remember hearing lots about Jesus and learning how to live as a nicer person. It was a fun time and I got to meet loads of exciting new people.
As I got further into high school, I was asked to help start a church praise band for the Sunday morning services. This meant I was in the church on a Sunday morning hearing the “real” sermon and sitting through an entire church service. I don’t remember finding it very interesting - in fact, I think I only stayed awake because I had to remember what the next song was! After a new minister joined to lead our church, my dad and I were asked to take a new members course to understand what it meant to be part of the church and what a Christian was. I think the course ran for six weeks and basically went over the basic principals of Christianity, mostly basic things that we all knew.
About a month after the course finished, I stood in front of the entire church congregation with the other members of the course and became a member of the church - committing my life to Christ.
Nothing, to my knowledge, significantly changed in my life.
Around this time, I went into the later years of high school where everyone was talking about having sex and going out drinking. The usual teenage stuff, I was led to believe. We would all go out to parties, drink lots and have a laugh. Maybe kiss a girl or two if you were lucky. Then I would go to church on Sunday mornings, as if I was a perfectly good Christian boy. I knew that casual sex was wrong and I didn’t do it. I did try to see where my boundaries were, and I did try new things. I even had my first “proper” girlfriend. Looking back, I remember feeling happy - but I don’t remember feeling on top of the world during the final years of high school.
When I got to university, I had to make a choice: do I continue to live like I did in high school, or do I give my life to Jesus and follow him?
At the end of Fresher’s Week, I went along to a talk run by the Christian Union titled “How to Live as a Christian at University”. It was amazing! The student’s were so friendly and the speaker told us about the amazing love and grace that Jesus has for us. It seemed perfect!
But I didn’t take any of it on board. I continued to hang out with my school friends who were all into drinking and sleeping around, neglecting God most of the time. I went out clubbing on a Saturday night, drank way to much then went to church on a Sunday morning and prayed that Jesus would help me to find him. One of my friends, who I thought was a very “good” Christian, slept with a girl he had met only the week before - I didn’t really know how to process this.
I started going along to a CU Small Group, where a group of students met weekly, studied the bible, chatted about it and had fellowship. It was so good! I learnt so many things about God and Jesus that I didn’t know. I had never properly read the bible before. I was being fed such good food - but I was putting God in a box, and still going out with my school friends at the weekend.
Then there was a party one night, a friend from school’s 18th, and most people were pretty well drunk. I wasn’t drinking because I had to drive home after. I had gone over to get a seat beside some people, when a girl came over and asked if we could share a seat because there wasn’t any spare. I said yes, she started talking to me and I quickly established she wasn’t drinking that night. I asked her why and she told me: “I’m a Christian and I don’t want to get drunk”. I just stared at her in disbelief! I had no idea there would be another Christian at the party, let alone one who would tell other people she was one! She talked to me for about an hour about how she was managing to live a Godly life at uni and how she was trying to be an example to her non-Christian flatmates.
I knew, right then, that I needed to change. I had to stop living my lie of a life, get back on the tracks and honour Jesus.
I wouldn’t say I was born again. I was just shown the correct path.
I began to pay more attention at church and attend the weekly CU meetings. I began to learn more and more about God and understand fully why he had given His only son for us. Slowly, I began to see my school friends less and less - they were still going out drinking, and I didn’t want to poison my life with that. Junk in = junk out.
At the end of the year, I was asked to be a leader of the small group for the coming year. I really didn’t know what to say - how could I lead a group of students and tell them how to live more Godly lives when I hadn’t been? How could I tell them about Jesus and the love he has for us when I had been a hypocrit for most of the year? After a long talk with one of the leaders, he told me he knew I was perfect to be a leader and that God would really work through me. I accepted. With a lot of prayer.
During one of the leader training days, I met a girl who was really passionate about God. Over the following summer, we got to really know each other and even stayed at each others houses for holidays over the summer. I’m glad to say, that that girl is now my long term girlfriend who encourages and challenges me in my faith every day.
Over the next year, being a small group leader really pushed me forward in my faith. I began to really trust in God and lift up any worries I had to Him. Throughout the year, I was really encouraged by God answering so many of our prayers! Being a small group leader forced me to be closer to God. It made me really understand what it was to be a Christian and it allowed me to form really strong bonds with the other people in the group.
Now we’re in the present, I’ve recently joined the CU committee where I am surrounded by people who are so passionate about God and have so much love for each other. I can’t wait to spend the next year working with them, learning more about God and developing in my faith.
I know that the growth of my faith won’t stop here though. I know that God will continue to use me to show his love on earth. I know that there is constantly a war against sin and I pray that he will continue to be with me.
I want to ask you though - do you know God? Do you have a really have an intimate relationship with him? And are you living a life that truly honours Him? I pray that you will really get to know him and you will honour him with your entire life.
