RighteousAudio's 1999 Buick Century

I was saved at the young age of nine. At that age I knew what it was like to love Jesus, love God, go to church, and want to go to heaven, but I didn't know what it meant to want to be committed to him and have a relationship with him. I started going to a private school when I was in sixth grade, and despite the Godly influence that included some of my friends, my teachers, my youth pastor, and my parents, I still caved to the pressure of alcohol, smoking, and being sexually active. I was always going to church, and never really did anything "wrong" as society would put it, but I still felt empty, and I never committed to having a "real"ationship with God.
The beginning of my freshman year of high school, there was a speaker in one of our chapels that was talking about making a stand for God. At the end of his sermon, he said for all of us to sit and then think about taking a stand for God this year. Then he said that if we were serious and wanted to make a stand for him to get up out of our seats and stand up for him right then and there. I remained in my seat.
That year I realized what it was like to be without God. There wasn't any life-changing car wrecks, or drug overdoses, or friends dying, or any huge shocking stories like that to tell. Nope... those are fun for a season. No, instead, I got to figure out the hard way what it meant in the Bible when it said "if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my father in heaven." I went through half of my school year never even feeling the presence of God. Once you've felt that presence, you know how bad it feels when it's gone. It's almost as if your soul is stolen from you.
In the middle of that school year, I went to an event called Extreme '96. During that conference they gave us an opportunity to stand for Christ... I'm sure you can bet who the first one to stand was. I jumped to my feet right away with my heart split wide open, and I felt like I was literally reaching for God. I felt like I could literally feel myself being held in God's arms, and I was alive again.
I don't know what it's like to be a drug addict. I don't know what it's like to be an alcoholic. I don't know what it's like to be a reformed criminal. I don't know what it's like to have survived some horrible accident that shook someone into reality that they need to wake up and do something with their life. But I know what it's like to have God and then be completely without him, and I would walk through fire rather than do it again.