Since the beginning of my recollection, I can remember going to many gospel meetings, whether on Sunday evenings or during the special events in the summer months. Having been the product of a Christian home, gospel meetings were the top priority. By the time I was about six or seven, my three older siblings were all saved. This, of course, instilled a deep desire for me to be saved. However, like many kids brought up in a Christian environment I struggled with salvation off and on for several years, fluctuating between times when being saved was all I could think about 24/7, to times when it was the last thing I would think about. This cyclical phase continued until I was a young teenager of thirteen years old.

One Sunday night a week or two before the start of special tent meetings, the Hall was holding the traditional testimony meetings before the summer gospel meetings. At this particular meeting, I heard several men share the story of how they were reached and saved. All I could think after each man sat down was, if they could be saved why couldn’t I?  I returned home very frustrated. That night before going to bed my dad prayed with the family, my mom noticed that I was very unhappy and asked what was the matter. I simply replied “nothing” and sulked to my room. Moments later my dad came in and as soon as he found what had been bothering me, he opened his Bible and read all the verses I had learned from a young age. I listened to each one desperately trying to be saved; I even would place my own name in the text as I had heard in many other testimonies. Nothing was working –  I was trying to believe everything I heard so much so that I was not giving God any room to work.  And that was the problem, I had always believed in the verses I was reading and the fact that Christ Jesus came to this earth to be crucified for my sins, but I was the one trying to do the salvation, rather than God. Before exiting my dad said, “I am going to read one more verse and then leave you to your thoughts.” I nodded and he turned to 1 Timothy 1:15 and read “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” It was then that I realized that Christ Jesus did not just come into this world to save sinners; but that He did it to save me… the chief of sinners and that the work was already done two thousand odd years ago. I had to do nothing but give up on my petty attempts of believing and just rest in the truth that Jesus Christ did all that needed to be done. It was that night on May 18, 2008  that God saved me.

-C.S.