Growing up, I didn’t know that much about any religions. My family left the Mormon church when I was 8, so I didn’t really pay that much attention to any of it after that. My best friend, however, was a devout Christian. I was afraid of her beliefs, so we didn’t talk about them much. But when I was sixteen, I asked my best friend exactly what she believed. I was afraid that her “religion” was holding her back from living life. She said “I believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven.” I couldn’t explain how, but that was when I started to believe.
I didn’t fully believe in that moment. I didn’t have that instantaneous conversion that everyone talks about. I just started to believe. Over the next few weeks I started talking to my other Christian friends, and asking them about Jesus. I started googling Jesus, finding different evangelistic sites that explained exactly why Jesus is the only way to Heaven. I learned that I was a sinner, and therefore separated from a Holy God, and that Jesus died so that I may know God. Eventually I prayed to God for the first time. I thanked Jesus for dying for me and rising again, and I asked Jesus to come into my heart. Since then, I have been completely drawn to the faith I once criticized.
I am a new creation in Christ Jesus, and I have new life. “Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free.” Jesus Christ is the meaning of life, and because He died, I will spend eternity in Heaven with the one true God who loved me enough to send His Son in my place. Hallelujah!