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I became a Christian less than 2 years ago, after being introduced to the Navigators ministry at Penn State, falling in love with the people that I met, and consequently, falling in love with Jesus.
I spent my freshman year of college taking a lot in, having the BEST times of my life, and hearing the Gospel for the first time in my life. Sometime during the end of my freshman year and the following summer though, I started to think about what it all really meant, and I realized that I had to accept Christ myself, that I couldn't just be along for the ride as it fit me. It was during this time that I first saw my NEED for God to save me but it was also during this time that I started to really question what exactly I believed.
That summer and my sophomore year involved God taking me to some really deep places. I really become aware of the realities of spiritual warfare, and I was able to begin to face my past for the first time in my life, instead of running from it, as I had done for as long as I could remember. I had so many doubts about God, but I KNEW that I needed His grace, and I had accepted that as far as I knew. He put the most amazing people in my life, who I can't even thank enough... people who beared with me through one of the most difficult and challenging times of my life and who showed me love and grace that could only come from God. It was through them that I really saw what it means to be a Christian... they were not "perfect" people or people who had it all together but rather they were the most real and genuine people I had ever known.
The summer after my sophomore year, God led me to Colorado Springs, CO, where I participated in a summer training program with the Navigators, called NCP. I could truly write a novel about this summer in and of itself, but it was during these 9 weeks out in Colorado that God began to ASSURE me of His promises. I learned so much about His perfect love and how "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) God's truths finally began to move from my head to my heart, and I was able to finally start really believing Him, apart from depending so much on other people. I fell in love with Jesus all over again, and I came out of the summer feeling like I was on that "new Christian high."
It's been a battle since NCP ended, but I'm learning to find victory in what I know to be true and also how to find JOY through the amazing truth of Jesus: how He came so that we could have "life to the full" (John 10:10). :)
A couple of really huge things that He is teaching me currently are how He truly is my unfailing love, greater even than any person or any thing in my life... how to share Him with others and opening my eyes to just how empty people are without Him... how to let His grace pick me up when I fail (as I do, many times every day), knowing that I am no longer defined by my failures but by His finished work on the Cross... how to turn from my selfish nature and how to love others "because He first loved us"... and that having "quiet times" (I'm not sure if that's a Navigator term or just a general Christian term, but it's a term for daily personal time with the Lord in prayer and in His Word) is a JOYFUL thing and not something that I should feel obligated to. Mostly, I am learning to put Him first, whether I feel like I'm on top of the world or I feel like I can't go on... this has helped me so much through changing circumstances and has helped me to realize that He is really my only constant.
It was actually incredibly awesome when I rediscovered this website and saw my old 'about me' section and was just blown away by how far God has brought me in such a short amount of time. Reading about who I was when I first went to college was like reading about a different person, literally.
I think the single biggest thing that I have grown to be passionate about in my walk with Christ is that we need to let Him take us to the deepest places of our heart. The people that I have connected with the most have been those who have let God take them through really hard things. And it is only by accepting these things about ourself and our past that God can truly set us free.