Over the last ten years, I’ve spoken to over 100,000 adults and teenagers around the world and have been brought to my knees by both the beauty and the brokenness.
In those travels, I find people alive with hope, mission, free in their identity and secure in their worth. Others exhausted from hiding their weaknesses, numb with distractions, and lonely, aching for real and meaningful relationships.
God has healed a great deal of brokenness in my life. From a young age I struggled with depression and anxiety. I hid behind my achievements and the opinions of others. I believed I was good only because of what I did, not because of who I was.
When I was 19, I encountered God, and everything changed.
It wasn’t through a convincing argument or bible study on theology, but through a Carmelite nun- who’s life couldn’t have looked more different than my own. No possessions, no status, no worldly success-I couldn’t imagine anyone choosing to live such a life, much less- being happy in it. I questioned her and her simple response was, “Keep praying, it’s so beautiful.” She had Peace. Something which I desparately longed for. And in that Peace, she had Joy.
I’d always known about God, but it wasn’t until I intentionally started praying and asking if there was anything more to life, that I actually came to know Him. Sure, I knew God collectively “loved His children”, but that truth was finally starting to feel personal. He loved me, His child. Even though I felt my insecurities deeply, and had strayed away from God so many time, He had never let me go, and He never would.
I had a radical conversion that changed my life forever. Because when I found Christ, I found myself.
For the first time, I began to realize my worth was not based on what I did or didn’t do. I didn’t have to have it all together. I didn’t have to look, act, or feel a certain way. I just had to BE HIS. And I was relieved. I just needed to be somebody who let Him love me. Do you know how freeing that is in a world that asks us to be so much?
Now, as an evangelist who wants to bring revival and awaken the church’s people to who Christ really is, my desire is to live life as one giant thank you to God, sharing the freedom that we are only able to love because He first loved us (cf. 1 John 4:19).
As I preach and teach, I see a church full of people aching to know genuine love, and experience real relationship with Christ and those in their lives.
I want to cry out that THERE IS MORE! There is more to who we are, there is more to what God has for us, there is more for our relationships. There is hope. And there is a greater story!
Like my story, all of our stories begin with an invitation – an invitation to a radical life given totally to Christ.
This is our invitation.
Do you know Him? Do you want to know Him?
Have you encountered the love of Christ?
Have you encountered yourself in Christ?
