Individuals' Stories
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Rachel
Hi, I'm Rachel and I'm in my second year doing physics.
When I arrived at Warwick last year I was a convinced atheist. As far as I was concerned the universe started with the Big Bang and science could explain everything. There was no need for a god, and I couldn’t understand how God and science could possibly fit together.
After a few weeks of living with a Christian in Whitefields, I began to see how little I knew about the Christian faith. I knew they had a god who created everything, and that some guy named Jesus came into it somewhere. A few of my flatmates and I asked a lot of questions, but never really listened to the answers, never actually considered the possibility that they could be right. Curiosity took over from pride and I started to listen and consider the answers I was given. For the first time my eyes were being opened to the possibility that I was wrong. I had to accept that there could actually be a god.
During mission week at the beginning of term two last year, I went along to the lunch bars and some of the evening meetings. I got answers to some new questions, as well as a different perspective on some I had already asked. I knew that Jesus, the Son of God, came down from Heaven, where everything’s perfect, to Earth, where things are often far from perfect. And then Jesus died, not just for everyone, but for each of us individually, for me. But I couldn’t understand why God did this for us.
I now know that God made us to be friends with Him, and that Jesus had to die so that we can be. God has so much love for us that He offers us this as a gift. I guess I had already started to peal the rapping paper off cautiously, but saw that there was no harm in taking a proper look at what was inside. Besides, it’s pretty silly to receive a gift and not bother to open it.
I spent the rest of term meeting once a week with Ellie and Ruth from the Christian Union, looking at John’s account of Jesus’ life. I saw the gift that God was offering me and knew I wasn’t worthy of it. Why would God want to be friends with me? I had only just met Him. No, I definitely needed to know more before I could accept His friendship.
Near the end of term I saw that I would never feel worthy enough to know God. But if I accepted God’s friendship I could start to learn from Him instead of through people. I didn’t need to know the Bible from cover to cover, or start trying to live a perfect life like Jesus did. God wanted me, not whole and finished, but just as I was, in all my brokenness, with all my fears. Nothing big happened when I said yes to God. It was just me thanking God that He wanted me.
Knowing that there is more to life than getting a degree and a good job, has really helped me to see what’s important in my life. I can now give more time to the things I enjoy, instead of spending most of my time working.
It took me a while to understand that being a Christian doesn’t mean I have to be perfect in God’s eyes. I want to follow Jesus’ life example but I need God’s help, and He is right here in my life to help me do that; to re-mould me into the way He created me to be.
God wants to change me because He knows what life should be like. He knows how we were designed to be. Being changed isn’t always easy or quick, and for me change has usually meant an uncomfortable and fear-filled step out of my comfort zone. I find it really hard to talk to people about myself; about things that are troubling me and the things I’m feeling. This is a bit of my life that God has really been working in since last term; providing me with opportunities to share my life with my close friends, and then giving me the strength to take advantage of those opportunities.
The thing which fills me with most fear is having to stand up and talk in front of a group of people. My immediate reaction when asked to do this during the mission week this term was 'no way'. But then saw what a great opportunity it was to really trust in God, and witness His great strength. I could stand there then because I knew Jesus was with me, giving me His courage.
A lot of the time fear has pretty good control over my life. It stops me speaking and keeps me from acting, and it causes me to get upset when I miss opportunities to do those things because of it. This term I’ve been learning how to step out of my comfort zone with God. Each time I have to remember that God is so much bigger and more powerful than my fear. This is really hard when situations occur without warning and the fear wells up inside me, blinding me to anything else. I know that this isn’t the way it should be; I know that I want God, not fear, to have control of my life. And I know that each time I act over the fear it dies a little bit more, and I can see and hear God more clearly.
One of the best things about being friends with God is that however rubbish life gets, however alone and lost I feel, I know that God is always there for me, and has more love for me than I can ever imagine. The creator of the universe is watching over me.
Ida
Before coming to Warwick University I was looking for God with all my heart and I was trying to get answers to my big questions; Why do I live? What is the meaning of life? I always believed there is a God but being brought up in a not very religious Muslim family I used to see God from a different perspective. The first term at university was full of challenges and although I tried to adapt as quickly as possible to the new environment, it was not very easy. I had already come with a hole in my heart, an emptiness inside myself that I couldn't fill with whatever I did but this hole grew bigger and bigger. Many times I felt a complete stranger and used to feel really sad and depressed. My flatmates have witnessed how many times I used to have swollen red eyes from crying. I tried to go out with friends, joined many societies, went shopping, bought new clothes but nothing made me feel better or it was just a temporary distraction.
One my flatmates Dan who is a real Christian invited me to listen to him praising God in one of the CU meetings on campus and I went and since that very first time I felt home and sang with the all the others although I hadn't listened to the songs before. My first visit was followed by a second one and a third one and so on and in those meetings I met some really lovely people who helped me find out more about Christianity and changed my view about it. It was amazing to find out that God loves each and every one of us and He loves us so much that He gave his only son who died on the cross so we can live forever. Every time I heard the preaching of the gospel I would find an answer to my questions, my heart would fill with joy and I would feel at peace.
Later on, on the term Jonathan told me that the Alpha Course run by the Jubilee Church was running on campus and invited me saying that I would find it really helpful and indeed I did. The talks during the first couple of sessions inspired me to know more and more about God and I could already feel the difference in my life. The leaders of my group were really helpful and tried to answer all my questions. The CU had a mission week on campus at the end of January and it was a week full of talks and praise to God and on Thursday of that week I became a Christian, my heart on that evening said: "Yes I do believe that Jesus died for me and I want to feel his presence in my life, I want to turn away from my sinful life and start again from the beginning, a whole new beginning full of His grace and His love, I want to accept God's gift".
My life changed completely since that evening and when I told my friend Ellie, there was so much joy in us and I thought "how amazing it is to have become a Christian". That day was followed by other days at the Alpha Course and the CU where my heart felt deeper and deeper in love with God, I finally found light in my darkness through him and I have witnessed the power of prayer, how Jesus healed when he was here but how he still heals today and how present he is in our lives, now I am a completely different person, my heart is free from pain, I have found salvation and my life is so meaningful and all my questions are answered, The Holy Spirit inside me fills me with happiness, overwhelming wellness, energy and a sense of purpose, now I want to live my life on earth as God wants me to and I know that he has a plan for each of us.
My ultimate goal is to reflect God's love in everything I do. I want to spend my life loving Him, Jesus Christ, my rock, my fortress, my friend and my Saviour who said: (John 14:6) "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one goes to the Father except by me".
Becoming a Christian is the best experience that I have ever had in my life and I will treasure it in my heart always and forever.
Jason
I’m Jason, currently a third year student at Warwick studying accounting and finance and this is my story of how I became a Christian.
I didn’t grow up with a Christian background, none of my family are Christians or religious in any way and as a child I never really went to church other than with school. My journey as a Christian to where I am now took place in a couple of stages, and each stage took a pretty lengthy amount of time. For me, deciding to follow Christ wasn’t a sudden decision, through some form of revelation or inspiration. It took me a long time and was really a steady process of being challenged, asking questions and trying to have an open mind.
In school I was pretty hard working, never really got into much trouble and pretty much strolled through life quite easily. When I was about 14 I met some new friends, who eventually invited me to the school’s Christian Union and a Church youth group, through which I eventually heard the idea that I was living a life that rebelled against God. At first, and for quite a while, this idea didn’t really grab me, and I was quite passive towards it. Having not ever seriously been in trouble or faced any real difficulty in life, I couldn’t see how the idea that I was rebelling actually applied to me. Like I say, it took a fair while, and eventually, being open to the idea that God existed, I began to realise that the rebellion the Bible talks about isn’t simply our outwardly actions, but what is going on in our hearts as well. I would never be able to argue that I haven’t thought unkind things about people, or had selfish thoughts and in all honesty my desires, when truth be told, were about my personal ambition or success.
This leads on to the next big step in my life, and moving to university. By this point I understood that Jesus had died for me, in place of the rebellion that I had against God, but although I believed this, it was not reflected in my life or how I was living my life, my desires had not changed. About half way through my first year I was challenged on what it meant to live as a Christian, putting God first in decisions rather than myself, I told God I was willing to change, and so he changed me.
I no longer saw a good job with a massive salary as the most important ambition in my life, which in itself is not a bad ambition, but for me I began to see other things are more important. My desire became to live the life that Jesus would have me live, which as he described it, is life in all its fullness. It hasn’t been an easy journey, I always had questions and still do, but knowing what God has done to bring people back into a relationship with him now compels me to live a life that is worthy of Him.
