Nathan’s Story

Before I knew Christ, my life was like a toy top. You know the kind that you get out of the vending machine? In high school, I was very involved in various activities. I did all sorts of things…baseball, drama, National Honor Society, band, and choir. I graduated from a class of about 330, and you could say I knew quite a few of those 330. I always sought after their attention.What my classmates thought of me was very important.

I wanted to fit in and be liked by all. Because of this, my life had no balance…just like that toy top when you first spin it. It’s wobbling all over the place and for a second you think it’s going to fall right over. I was all over the place. I was getting drunk and doing drugs nearly every weekend my junior and senior years of high school. During the week, I played the “good kid” and got good grades, was in the band, and was even a part of a community program that visited elementary schools to help prevent substance abuse. I was living a double life in order to blend and cope with this nagging necessity to earn the approval of my peers. I didn’t know where my place was, and I was numb.

I entered college eager to make new friends, and truly discover who I was as a person. As a freshman, I continued to search for my place just like I did in high school. I changed my behavior to match my peers’ and in doing so, masked my true identity. One day, this guy from Campus Crusade for Christ named Dusty gave me a call. He asked me a couple questions from a survey I had recently completed and asked if I wanted to meet. We met up later and he got the chance to share the Gospel with me. I had grown up going to church with my parents, but I didn’t know what it meant to be in a personal relationship with God.

We had a somewhat argumentative conversation and after about 45 minutes Dusty finally didn’t have anything left to say. I went back to my room and thought about what we talked about. Dusty talked about my sin, and how I had sinned against God, and in doing so, had earned eternal spiritual separation from Him. Dusty shared with me how God sent His son Jesus into the world to take my sins, and pay the penalty that I earned, with His perfectly sinless body nailed to the cross. Dusty shared with me that it wasn’t enough to just know these truths…we needed to receive them and put our faith, hope, and trust in them. We needed to follow them with our hearts. I realized that Dusty was right, and I prayed later that God would come into my life and rescue me from the sins that I had committed and that I completely trusted Him with my life. I had no idea that from that day on, my life was changed forever.

After a few weeks I started meeting with Dusty more regularly and learning about God. We read the Bible and prayed together and he really showed me what it meant to be a follower of Christ. The winter of my freshman year God began to change my heart. He taught me that drinking, drugs, and partying could offer me absolutely nothing in comparison to the eternal joy that I have in Christ and the work He did on the cross. I was finally alive and I knew where I was supposed to be. God showed me that He was the only thing to hope in, because all else is broken and imperfect.

God is my constant in life. He is faithful. He is perfect and He is true. My life is now spinning in complete control, because I can rest in the peace that my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has rescued me and given me the hope of eternal life.