I grew up the son of a pastor so I have been in church my entire life. Of course I lived with the expectations of being the preacher's kid and not being allowed to do anything wrong, and under the microscope of everyone who waited to see me fall. I was saved when I was 7 years old, but I really did not know what all that entailed.
Since I was so young I really did not do anything different in my life than I had before I was saved. It was not until I was in High School that I really began to understand what it meant to be a Christian and what God expected of me. I became on fire for God and was not ashamed to tell my friends that I was a Christian, nor was I afraid of sharing Christ with them. But my junior year my world began to change. I was beginning to realize the talent God gave me to play the cello, when I suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery and meant I would not be allowed to play for 2 months.
It was over this time that I discovered my passion for music and the gift it was from God. And I saw that this would be where my future lied. During that time my parents informed me that my dad was resigning from the church to help start churches across the state, and that we would be moving following my graduation from HS the next year.
My senior year was supposed to be great, but it was probably one of my toughest. It seemed that everyone I had looked up to the previous two years began letting me down. My youth minister became less interested in how I was, one of my teachers (who was also one of my best friends) turned her back on me because I did not agree with her lifestyle, and the chruch I went to was turning there back on my family and slowly falling apart. As all this happened I was trying to decide on a college and the stress of everything became too great. I turned my back on God and church and became reclusive. I speant as little time as possible with friends or church. I was content to be by myself when I was not in school and even when I was in school I was satisfied to be alone. After graduation I moved to a new town and basically spent that summer alone doing nothing. But once I got to college things started to change. I got involved in the Baptist Student Minsitry at school and began fellowshiping with other believers, something I had not done in a while. I began to get in the Word, and found myself getting closer with God.
I never have done anything horrible in my life but I've become so far from God that sometimes I do not know why he takes me back. But God is good and forgives us even when others will not. So no matter what you have done, no matter how far you have run, God will always be there with his arms open ready to love and forgive you.
