This Changes Everything
By
Carolyn Hulliberger
“…I
know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I
have entrusted to Him until that day.”
2
Timothy 1:12
If you could be any animal, what animal would you be? I know what my answer would have been many years ago, because I was always imitating it…the chameleon. Why? Because the chameleon can change its colors based on its surroundings, in order to blend into its environment.
I was raised in a Christian church from early on, young enough that I cannot really remember “coming” to a faith like a switch had been turned on, but instead, always feeling that I had a faith growing up. I believed in God, in Jesus, in my salvation through Jesus’ death on the cross. But by my teenage years, my life resembled that of a chameleon. Leaving all of my friends in a move from Illinois to Wisconsin, the killing of my cousin at 14, and the death of my aunt as a passenger of a drunk driver the following year, all left me feeling lost and angry. Each member of my family was reeling from all that we were enduring, but not letting people from the outside into our pain. My response on one hand was to be the “good girl,” seeking approval in my grades and activities. On the other hand, outside of school, I was doing my own thing, in control of what my image was to whomever happened to be my audience. Inside, though, I was a tangled mess of turmoil and questions. My colors changed depending on whom I was around.
By my senior year, there was a battle going on inside. Which person did I want to become? My heart led me to a small Christian college, partly to get away from my family, and partly because I had to settle this issue once and for all, and thought this was the best place to do it. When I was there, I found genuine people, both classmates and professors, who showed me what it meant to follow Jesus - - to have a relationship with Him - - not just follow a set of rules and make it look good to others. They showed me that Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” I had always known that Jesus was the way, and that following Him was the truth of God’s plan, but I had not put into practice making Him my life.
Trusting Him with my life changed everything.
Making Jesus my life has been a journey since those college years. My issues of hurt and anger over those teenaged events, while healed, still have their scars. Jesus has helped me to accept these things as part of what makes me…me. I’ve learned to stop playing the chameleon. He wants me to be the same person, no matter whom I’m with or what my circumstances are.
GOING DEEPER:
1. How are you “putting into practice” making Jesus your life?
2. Who needs to hear how knowing Jesus has changed everything?
FURTHER READING:
John 14:6
Along
with caring for her husband, two children and the dog, Carolyn serves Oakwood
Church in Student Ministries with an awesome group of junior high girls, and is
the treasurer for Women’s Ministries.
