My journey as a Christian began during my university years in London. One Sunday, a friend from my dorm invited me to church, which started my journey of exploring this faith, for which I am forever grateful.
Growing up, life was quite smooth – whatever I put my mind to and worked hard for, I was able to achieve, doing well in exams and extra-curriculars, getting into a good university, getting multiple law firm offers, having great friends and social events to attend. I remember thinking to myself that being second in class was not good enough and that only being at the top would make me happy. In this anxious search for perfection, I felt empty, stressed and lacking in joy, always searching for the next achievement, recognition, and relationship to make me feel better.
Attending church in London brought me a peace that transcended all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7) and a joy I’d never experienced. But that was only the start of a long journey of learning about our God, understanding his love for me, and how incredibly undeserved that is for a sinner like me. As a new Christian, I didn’t understand why it was wrong for me to call the shots on my life, why it was wrong for me to want to control every area of my life for my own interests, having no regard for our maker and Lord.
God humbled me, changed and refined me
It took me a long time to start to understand the countercultural way of life our creator speaks of: that those who are first will be last, and the last first (Matthew 19:30), that when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:10), and that we are saved through faith, not of our doing, a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8).
As the Lord allowed me to open my heart to hear him, I gained freedom, freedom from chasing the work and relationship idols in my life, acknowledging him as my Father, knowing that “unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain” (Psalm 127:1). There were deeply painful experiences I went through, the sudden passing of a loved one and multiple heartbreaks. But it was through these experiences that God humbled me, changed and refined me. He saved me from the idols of my life, disciplining and teaching me that he only is the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6).
Getting baptised is long overdue, but today my baptism declares my faith. It’s a proclamation that God is the Lord of my life. I hope to honour him first and foremost with everything that I do and with everything that I have. C.S. Lewis said “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else”. I pray those who are yet to know our creator will, in his timing, experience true joy, freedom and contentment in a relationship with him too.
