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Our Testimonies
I Found the Secret of Life
I was raised in a Christian home, and was "confirmed" into my denomination. While nice socially, it never did much for me spiritually, so from high school
I had little interest in God. Once I enrolled in college, I became a self-made
atheist. The whole Christian life made no sense to me. I could not see how God
could be so simple that all we are here for is to believe in Him, then go to
heaven when we die. It sounded like a big bore to me, and I abandoned God in
favor of more worldly and intellectual pursuits.
After about a year, however, I found myself realizing that I was missing
something. Inside, I knew that maybe God was real, so I needed to find him. I
allied myself with some Christian friends, joined a popular campus Christian
group, and began to attend a popular church. This all was very nice, and I
even became the leader of the Bible study. The curious thing was that I myself
had no assurance that God was real, nor that I was saved. No one had been able
to give me the answers I sought, and the Christian life still did not make any
sense. I was seeking, but I still had not found God.
After I graduated, I moved on to graduate school to study genetics. Once
there, I went with a friend to a Christians Bible study. What
attracted me was that my friend was able to answer the sort of basic questions
that I had always asked, like why did Christ have to die for us. It seemed
every question I asked I got answered in a way that finally made sense. In
that meeting, I also received two marvelous items. The first was that someone
finally could give me the assurance that I was saved. It was simple, but no
one had ever been able, using the Bible, to prove it to me. I was finally
secure in my mind that I was a real believer.
The second item was that I found that God has a plan. I learned that the
Christian life does indeed have a goal, much higher than going to heaven. God
had a plan when he created everything; He was not the pointless God I had
found in my previous Christian seeking. When I realized that I was chosen by
God to be included in what He was doing, I hardly could contain myself. Not
only did I need God, but God needed me. My life finally had the meaning for
which I long had sought.
D. O., Conrad, Montana
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