Personal Narrative: My Faith Story

My faith story is not terribly unique. I haven’t had to overcome any massively life-altering obstacles, like fighting off cancer or having a parent die; in fact, I’ve led a pretty normal life, if there is such a thing as normal. However, that does not mean that my life has been without challenge. I have overcome several challenges throughout the course of my life, and the growth from these challenges continues to impact my faith to this day. My story begins in a somewhat typical way. I grew up in a Christian home with two Christian parents and have attended the same church my entire life. Honestly, I do not have any distinct memories of when I first accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior because my home was so saturated in Christ and His teachings.

We started off on the wrong foot by having theological differences about identity; her opening activity, while well-intentioned, ended up consisting of telling me that I was wrong about how I thought of myself and that I needed to change my identity to fit how she thought I should see it. Other mannerisms and stories of her came off as very self-righteous and condescending. If this woman was supposed to be my leader and someone I could look up to as an example of faith but she acted in such a way, then why even bother with Christianity? If that was what a “model” Christian was, I did not want to be a part of that.

All of this angst about Christianity and people in the church precipitated into a fairly long season of doubts. During my senior year, I began to seriously question the validity of the Bible: was the Bible true? If so, how? What’s so special about it that makes it the word of God? How do we know that it has not been warped by various translations and recopying of Scripture over the years? I became unsure of what I believed and what I should

While my outlook on life was spiraling downward, my faith in God was increasing exponentially. My family was two hours away and I had no friends, so the only one I had left to turn to was God. He became my rock, my constant, my all, the one I turned to at all hours for comfort and healing. That was such a wonderful, wonderful time for my faith, and it erased all my doubts about God.

When I was ready for it, God provided me with some friends through a mission trip I went on over spring break of my freshman year of college. I was able to relate to those people and become friends with them, and they seriously changed my life. I could not be more thankful for all of them.

My sophomore year, I went in blind for housing and was placed with someone who became one of my best friends. She connected me with the friends I have now, and I was thoroughly accepted into their friend group. I finally felt at home at college. My roommate challenged me in my faith that year. She was newer to Christianity but thought about it incredibly deeply, and I cannot tell you the number of times we discussed the viability of the Trinity. She continues to make me really define what I believe, as she now considers herself transgender. Because of that, and because of her new views on homosexuality, I am forced to really solidify what I know to be true and learn how to love her in spite of what she does and