A long time ago, I was a 17 year old kid in high
school. I know, hard to believe but I was in high school at one point of my
life.
Even though I was active in our church activities and hung around some
Christian friends (the majority of them weren't what you would consider committed followers)
my faith never really seemed to develop at what I would call a deep level.
I
guess I was what you would call a "confused surface Christian."
I didn’t understand what being a committed follower of Christ entailed. It felt
deeper for me than a “do good, feel good” type of person but it wasn’t what Jesus would call a real relationship with Him.
Now, not growing up with an active Christian family didn’t
help to give me a familiar background of what being a Christian meant, nor did
it give me any biblical knowledge or historical value. On the positive side, it
was brand new and I had a choice of whether or not I wanted to learn about this
faith. On the negative side, I was very cynical of who this Christ guy was. But
I have learned that the questions that I asked in life have only helped me to
find more answers. If I wasn’t questioning who God was I wouldn’t have cared
if he existed or not.
When I was questioning God, I was actually searching
for Him.
On my faith journey my relationship with Christ was
practically destroyed. It wasn’t deep enough to withstand some of the life-shattering
events I would have to go through. These events seemed like the perfect reason to leave God. But when I
think about it I wish that I wouldn’t have denied God for so long. I wish I
had known more about my faith instead of pretending to be someone I wasn’t.
This is important to me now because helping students build a
faith has somehow become part of my “job” at Hope Lutheran Church. A goal I would have is to help
deepen your faith by finding the things that help you grow as a Christian. Whether it be questioning God, experiencing His love, or seeing how we can
become part of God's call, I want you to understand how deep His love can go.
It seems that every book we read (for work) states that the church is struggling to
develop a deep faith in our high school and college-aged students.
Since this is my “job” it would help to know
where we can help build your faith. Mark and I both think that joining a church
small group is vital to help build a lasting faith and would encourage you to
do so.
What things help to strengthen your faith and deepen your
relationship with God?
Your brother in Christ,
Adamantium~
Adamantium~
