“God seemed like a big scorekeeper in the sky”
Changed by Jesus #51
By Whitney Owens, Downtown campus
I became a Christian last year as I was graduating college. I was raised in a Christian home, but in college I sank deeper and deeper into sin and my prideful self the more I discarded the values I had been raised with. God seemed like a big scorekeeper in the sky, and after I reached a certain point of failing at morality I gave up.
Wrong Way
I started to experiment. I tried drugs, listened to peers who didn’t know any better, and drank my worries away. Partying and making out with boys became an escape as I ran as far as I could from my deep struggles with my own worth and purpose in life.
I was doing well in school still, keeping up appearances at my job and with my family, yet that ache was still so unsatisfied.
Only Way
Somehow in God’s perfect design, all the different facets of my life brought me to a point where I started to wonder if there really was something personal in that God figure. I didn’t believe that God spoke to people, but then again I had never stopped to listen.
As soon as I started listening, and coming to God as I was—broken, weary, and sinful—he started revealing himself and speaking to me in ways that I was unable to deny or run from. Everything pointed to the God of the Bible.
And as my eyes were opened to the truth, Jesus became the only way for me. And God was changing me! Talking to me! Loving me! Saving me!
On the Way
I walked into my first Mars Hill community group still high from all the newness of God revealing himself to me. I remember how warm everyone was, how well they listened to my testimony. It was so assuring to get to know God’s people and discover that they were different from all I had known during high school and college.
And God brought me a husband through community group as well! Less than two months after I had joined group, Miguel and I started dating. God mysteriously converged our lives in his perfect timing, and the relationship has changed me forever. It is my first relationship with a Christian man, and I can’t say enough for the value of true godly headship.
Miguel proposed at the one year anniversary party of Mars Hill Downtown, and we are getting married at the church in September.
Mars Hill Church has been an integral part of the direction and scope of my life for the past year, and I don’t know where I would be without it. My personal walk with God is integral, of course, but I am loved and challenged by the church immensely.
Jesus is my friend, my Savior, and he is working through his people. I can’t wait to spend the rest of eternity with him and his bride!
What’s Your Story?
