“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Romans 5:3-4

At the time of giving our faith statement in confirmation, I was conflicted on what to write. Sure I believed in God, but really only because my parents did. Everyone starts their faith off like this. We all kind of get told what to believe in, especially as kids. This is why I had trouble writing my faith statement. I didn’t really have a faith of my own, but if I was going to be considered an adult in the church, I wanted it to be my opinion, my voice, and no one else’s. I wanted to believe in Jesus for myself, not because I was told to. Like the majority of us, I wanted proof of God’s existence, I wanted a straight-forward answer, but as we all know, that’s not how faith works. And as I read my faith statement, which was really just  questioning everything in the Bible, almost doubting it, arguing against it, asking for concrete evidence, in front of all my peers, plus the pastors and ministers, I found this out for myself. The first time I met Pastor Ben was when he previewed my faith statement. After he read it, he told me that as a God of Faith, why would He reveal himself? We’re never going to really know the meaning of everything, or the reason behind everything, but isn’t that what faith is? Believing in something we’re not entirely sure of? And after I read my faith statement in front of everyone else, Pastor Van said something along the lines of, “It’s kind of hard to get stronger in your faith if you don’t question it once in awhile.” What both Pastor Ben and Pastor Van said is something I won’t forget, because that’s when my faith became my own, from that point on my life changed quite a bit.

All of a sudden I have friends signing me up for church retreats, like TEC. I’m playing at Vespers every week, I’m in the band Wednesday night worship band for confirmation, and I drum for the weekend services at Highlands. In short, I’m very involved at Highlands now, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve been pretty lucky to not have a tragic event occur in my life, but even for the everyday stresses in my life, I now have an enormous community to reach out to, whether it’s my friends at Vespers, or members of Highlands two or three times my age, I feel like I can talk to anyone about anything. This is something I’ve really come to appreciate, because not everyone has such a wonderful community to lean on. Especially as a freshman in college, not entirely sure of what the future holds, it’s comforting to know there’s so many people to help you out in any way they can.

Prayer: Dear God, Help us remember that we are always loved by You, no matter what mistakes we make, no matter how many times we doubt You, no matter how many times we push people away, we will always have You and a loving community to lean on. Amen.