23 years ago today, during Freshers' Week at university I decided to become a Christian.
Since being a small child I believed in God. I asked to get baptised at the age of six.
Looking back now, I'm not
sure why, I guess I partly wondered why I hadn't been like all the other boys in my class.
As a teenager, I felt Christians were weak. Just weak willed people who needed a crux in life. The Christians I knew didn't have answers for the difficult questions I fired at them. I didn't respect that.
On the first night at University, on the way back from the pub, I fired all the questions I had at a Christian. He gave sound, well thought through answers to each question. I was surprised to know there WERE answers.
The next day, we had to go to the cathedral to swear an oath of allegiance to God and the university. Many of my fellow students were messing around. I felt this behaviour was disrespectful for a place of worship. It made me angry and more determined to do something about it if this Christian god was real.
At the offer of free cake I went to the Christian Union coffee morning.
The people there seemed warm, genuine.
They had a mini guide of churches and one of these friendly bunch said they were going to a church on Sunday. I heard it was a 'happy clappy' church. I had been to a church like this before and had seen some funny stuff. I wasn't convinced but I gave it a go.
Come Sunday, there I was. At some point in the service two students from a student radio show were being prayed for by the church leaders. They began shaking. I knew they were either experiencing something or faking something. During the next song I closed my eyes and prayed to God. I said, I needed to know.
- Were these Christians telling the truth?
- Was this God they talked of the same God as the god of my youth.
- Was it Jesus? Was Jesus God’s son?
I told God, if it was him, I would do what he wanted. But if not I needed to know either way, as to be honest, I wanted to get drunk and have sex. A lot!
But, I knew that if my God
was the god of the Jews, that wouldn't be right.
As I stood there, eyes closed praying these things, my whole body began to tingle. Despite my eyes being closed, I saw this golden glitter falling towards me from above. It was indescribable, awesome. I felt God was there with me saying YES to each of my questions in turn.
- Yes, they were telling the truth.
- Yes, their God was my God.
- Yes, THE God the creator.
- Yes, that Jesus was the son of God.
All I could say was wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
As I realised how deeply this would change my life.
At the end of the service the worship leader said. If there was anything we didn't understand or if we wanted to become a Christian to go up to him at the end of the service.
I went up. The worship leader turned to the church leader and said "pastor, this guy wants to become a Christian." I was immediately though, like wait. Whoah. I didn’t say that.
But then I thought wait, I just said to God. If he was real, I wanted to do things his way. So I said yes. Yes, I do want to become a Christian.
Looking back now, 23 years later, as I go back to university, once again to study, I am thankful. God intervened in my life at a time where I would have made mistakes at break neck speed. I called out to him and he answered. He still answers, and I need him today just as much as I did then.
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