Jessica Anderson - Second Year Profile

“I’ll never become a Christian!” That’s what I was saying to myself a little over eight years ago. But let me tell you how I got to the point where God even crossed my mind.

I spent my life looking for meaning. Something to live for, that would make things “worth it”.

Was it being successful, or a good person? Or rebelling against those ideals? Was it art and music? Friends? Falling in love? None of those were a satisfying answer. In the end, the best I could come up with was living for good times.

But this really weird and annoying thing started to happen. As I was going about my life, playing music, partying with my friends, I couldn’t shake this thought: God must be real. The more I considered it, the more I thought that it would actually take more faith to say God wasn’t real. But… which God?

I sat in my room looking up different religions online and seeing what I could learn. That’s when I had that thought: “I’ll never become a Christian!” It was just too weird. God becoming a human; God loving bad people? That’s not how I would have done it.

As I started to learn about various religions, I kept getting stuck. Each one was based on what a man said about God. And who was right? Did an angel really visit Muhammad? Did the Buddha really find the truth?

It was around this time that I came across this idea: Jesus said he would rise from the dead. And if he really did something as out there as that… then that made him different from the others. That meant the other things he said would be true too. I found that there is really compelling evidence that Jesus’ resurrection really happened. And so I had to (begrudgingly) admit that the stuff about Jesus was true!

I began to read the Bible and found that it was nothing like the religious textbook I thought it was going to be. At different points I was disturbed, thrilled, comforted, confused. And could I be one of those people who’d be saved if they called on the name of the Lord?

I started very timidly going to a local church, Epping Presbyterian Church. I would sneak in, sit in a back pew and sob at the thought that God might forgive me. One day we were having the Lord’s Supper and I was about to just sit there and not participate. But then I thought: hang on, I know Jesus died for me; I want to live for him. I think I AM a Christian!

In God I found the meaning and truth that I was looking for. But one thing that really surprised me is how GOOD it is to be a Christian. God is always with me and I know he cares for me. He’s changing me for the better. He’s given me a massive family of brothers and sisters. There are so many joys in being a Christian. One of the greatest for me has been seeing my dad trust Jesus too a couple of years ago.

Why am I a Christian? Because it’s true. But I thank God that it’s not just true, it’s GOOD!