Into the light
One of my favourite church songs is the one that goes “read your bible, pray every day, if you want to grow” because I believe these words are particularly significant to Christians. Now, I’m not going to lie, I don’t read my bible everyday; I try to read it as much as possible but I know I don’t read it every day. In fact I don’t even pray every day but I believe that the song is significant because reading the bible and praying are sure ways of becoming closer to God. Both those instances are communicating with God which is why it is important to do it every day or as much as possible.
The journey of a Christian is often a long and difficult one. With Catholic priests being pulled up for child abuse and Charismatic churches where witchcraft is strongly believed in it is not an easy journey being a Christian. I mean, of course it’s not easy trying to convince non believers that there is a God and even merely explaining ones beliefs is often an onerous task. In this story I am going to try and explain my beliefs up until the point I have reached in my journey with God, I am in no way trying to impose my beliefs on anyone and I am in no way suggesting that my beliefs are perfect or better than anyone else. My beliefs work for me so I am going to try and explain why this is so. If you have any questions or anything else I am open for discussion in my comments, but nothing that rips into my beliefs please, I only want to take part in pleasant discussions.
Whilst it has its ups and downs I certainly believe that being a Christian is both fulfilling and rewarding. Christianity has always played an important part of my life as I remember as a child when I went to church with my grandparents. I enjoyed going to Sunday school because the teachers were so nice and we used to play whilst they taught us about God and Jesus Christ. Although we were beginning to learn what it meant to be Christians we still had a lot of fun and I made many friends whilst attending that Sunday school. African churches are also quite lively so I enjoyed going to church because even if I didn’t fully understand what was going on I had so much fun going to the services. I remember when I was seven and I asked my granddad why he was bald and he told me that God was his barber. I even continued going to church every Sunday when I moved to live with my parents. So I guess I have always been an avid church goer.
I was baptised into the Methodist church a baby and ever since I've been going to church regularly. When I first started going to church with my mum I used to think that it was a chore going to church because I often felt like it was my mum taking me for the sake of it but as I've gotten older I've found that my faith in God has grown. I mean, every Sunday I was woken up at what I still feel as ungodly hours to get ready to go to church and the churches here are not nearly as fun as the churches I remember going to with my grandparents.
I mean now I am even able to understand and appreciate the fact that God is always with us, particularly through the bad times. Until my confirmation class leader told me the story of a man who always knew that God was with him until one day he could see his footsteps no more did I truly begin to believe that our God is a wonderful God. In the story the man always saw Gods footsteps beside his when he walked, this is to represent the fact that God is always there. Then, one day the man could only see one set of footsteps and when he asked God why that was; God told him that at that point he was carrying the man. This is an example of God always being there for us and especially through the bad times. I mean only God walks with in the dark times of our lives like he did with that man.
I also believe that God is truly amazing because of some personal experiences that without God I do not believe I would have survived. My mum has told me many stories which confirmed her beliefs in God and my own personals experiences added to this have heightened my own beliefs. No one’s lives are easy but I think things tend to look better once you have God by your side. I remember that for a long time when I was younger I used to go to this club called Kids club where we talked about and learned about Christianity through fun and games. A lot of the volunteers there discovered Jesus in their adult life and this got me thinking about my own journey to discovering God when I started my confirmation classes.
