I grew up in a Christian
household where we went to church every Sunday. I have an incredible family: a
little brother who is three years younger than me who I grew to become very
close with and consider a best friend, sister who is two years older than me
who I often struggled to get along with growing up but still loved nonetheless,
and two amazing parents who have loved and supported me in all that I did.
Going to church for me was never what it should have been. It was always this
time to just hang out with friends, play games, and do whatever I could to not
get bored when it came to hearing the sermon—I disliked that part more than
any. I certainly understood God and believed in him; however, that was as far
as I went with him. There was no existing relationship.
Skipping
all the way ahead to my freshmen year of high school I was excited. I knew it
was a time to be the person I wanted to be and to me, I thought it was being a
great soccer player. I focused just about all of my time into soccer and it was
about the only thing that mattered to me. My sister invited me to something she
went to called Young Life and I always told her no and put it off. After about
the 10th time she asked me I finally decided to give it a shot and I
loved it. The games were absolutely crazy, the songs were so much fun, and more
than anything I found myself very interested in the talks at the very end. I was
surprised of how little I really knew about who Jesus was. That summer I signed
up for Young Life camp and had the best week of my life. It was the most fun I
had ever had in my entire life. More importantly, it was the first time I had
learned that I could have my own personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately with hearing that great news, I told myself I would put it on
hold for now and come back to it later.
Not
much happened in my sophomore year of high school. I was still very into trying
to be the best soccer player I could so that had about all of my focus, that
and Young Life. I signed up for camp again that summer and didn’t take nearly
as much away from it like I did my first year. More than anything I got
extremely close to my Young Life leader. So close that I looked up to him like
an older brother and I really trusted him with so much. To my complete
surprise, after camp he quit being a Young Life leader. To this day I have
never found out why but that was a pretty big turning point in my life. I was
in such shock that the guy that I told everything, trusted beyond belief and
looked up to had just quit and left without saying goodbye.
Going
into my junior year I almost became a different person. I hated Young Life. I
felt so betrayed, stabbed in the back, and blindsided by my leader quitting
that I was completely against it. More so, I started to really find my identity
in girls. They suddenly became everything to me, and I liked it. I was still
very committed to soccer but if I wasn’t playing soccer than in some way,
shape, or form I was talking to some girl. I was always with a girl, and if I
was no longer with that girl then I was with another, it got to the point where
I was just about never alone when it came to having a girl around. I didn’t
want to commit to them as a boyfriend, but having them around was enough for
me. That is pretty much all of what my junior year was about, consistently
using girls and finding my identity in them.
As I
went into my senior year of high school we got a new Young Life leader whose
name was Carl. Carl was very intentional and was always at my high school at
the end of the day, I did whatever I could to avoid him but sometimes he
managed to sneak up on me. He had invited me to the first young life club in a
long time and I told him I would go. Minutes before it started I told Carl I
wasn’t going to make it because my stomach hurt and I didn’t feel like going. I
was waiting for Carl to go off on me in anger and lecture me on how it’s wrong
to lie to people and to throw it in my face, but he didn’t. I’ll never forget
his response to me, he said “Luke I don’t care if you come to Young Life or not
to be completely honest, I just want to hang out with you. If you don’t want to
hang out at Young Life then let’s hang out another time somewhere else, I just
want to be your friend.” I was in such shock when he told me that because
before I always felt so used when I would go to Young Life and Carl made a
point to me that it wasn’t like that. The next week I made it a point to go to
Young Life for Carl and I loved it. Once again, everything about it was
amazing. Shortly after that Carl asked me if I would be interested in helping
him out with skits and I told him I would- later down the road I realized it
was Carl’s secretive plan to get me to keep coming back- how awesome was that.
I got pretty involved with Young Life and I was starting to really understand
God so much more than ever before, but then I got a girlfriend; My first one
ever. The first month of dating her was great- I had someone to depend on, talk
to, make me feel wanted, give me satisfaction, someone to call mine. Then
things started to slowly go downhill. She started to get involved in the party
scene and it gradually became an every weekend kind of deal- I was completely
against going out to parties in every sense so it really took a toll on me. She
would start to lie to me. I remember finding out one time and did my best to talk
to her about it. I remember pouring my heart out to her and telling her how
much it hurt me, but she didn’t seem to care. I slowly pushed everything that
once mattered away from me; my family, soccer, Young Life, my friends, God,
everything. I made my girlfriend my priority above all else and put every ounce
of hope I had into her. Things started to get even worse and she partied more,
treated me with less and less respect, and started to ignore me. I was slowly
becoming more and more depressed. I lost my apatite so I stopped eating as
much, I lost the energy to work out because she was always on my mind, my
grades in school started to really slip, soccer was no longer that important to
me, and I would start napping throughout the days to make time go by faster so
that it wouldn’t feel like she was actually ignoring me all of the time. My
parents got really worries about me and took me to the hospital to get tested
for MONO. They were really surprised to see that the results were negative but
it turned out that I was just so depressed and no one knew about it because I
pushed everyone away.
There was one night when I was
sitting at home, I just got in a bad fight with my Mom and was alone in my room
and I started to think about ways that I could just end my life. I thought life
was supposed to be so much better than this and I had no idea what I was
supposed to do so killing myself seemed like the best option. Before I got too
far something popped into my head and I felt the need to just text Carl and see
if he could meet up with me because of how hurt I was. It didn’t take long for
him to respond and he was instantly there for me. We met up and for the first
time in months and I finally told someone everything that I was going through
and how bad I was hurting. Carl felt for me and told me that I desperately
needed Christ back in my life; that I was made to have him in life. He also
told me I needed to dig deep and pull out all the things that were really
hurting me, starting with my girlfriend. I didn’t want to believe him but deep
down inside I knew he was right. One week later the Lord gave me strength and
empowered through me and I was able to break up with my girlfriend. It was one
of the hardest things I had ever had to do because I gave her so much of me,
but God got me through it. I then decided that night, on January 19th,
2012 that I was going to not only believe in God but take my relationship with
him serious. I felt like a new man, the old was gone and the new had come. I
went into my high school and ran harder with Young Life than I ever had. I
tried to be the best influence I could on my little brother and his friends. I
got to help lead Young Life as a high school student and never felt so alive
with Christ at the center of my life. That summer I signed up for camp and got
to help lead a cabin with my best friend, Carl. It was life changing, I
realized how empowered as a leader I was with Jesus Christ in control of my
life. I was broken down and lost, but resurrected through Christ sand more than
happy to get to serve him in this world.
What have I been doing? (2015)
Right now I am a junior at
Christopher Newport University. Things are getting wild here and in Virginia
campuses. Specifically, I am a co-founder and the current president to an
organization called THRIVE that unites the campus monthly for a night of worship.
We have seen people MEET THE LORD, we have seen people revive their
relationship with him, we have seen ministries come together in the name of
Jesus and love one another for the simplicity of his love. I am going to every
ministry on my campus as a servant, a friend, and lover because I believe the
Lord is calling me to be there in hopes that they will align with my vision
from the Lord to unite as a family in the name of Jesus and revive our school.
Additionally, I travel to different campuses in Virginia when the Lord calls me
to. I have been all over the place and it is amazing what he is doing. Campuses
are aligning in visions and doing similar things. We are FOR one another and we
all want to see Virginia go on FIRE for the Lord. I love the Lord's voice. He
is FAITHFUL and for that I pray for boldness and discernment to simply follow
him and do anything he calls me to. He recently sent me to a party where I was
able to pray for a guy there and the Lord literally restored this man's faith.
God has me on this wild kick where he is calling me to go do something and he
SHOWS UP every time. So I love what the Lord is doing in and through me right
now and I want more of it. I believe he will increase.
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