What are your religious beliefs?
I'm a Christian, saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
If a Christian, when did you accept Christ?
Well, which time? I don't necessarily believe that I lost my salvation, but there are two different times where I came go God, once innocently as a child and again later in true repentance from sin.
I was born into a Christian home. My dad's a pastor, my mom's a Sunday school teacher, my grandfather a deacon in his church, so God and church were always a part of my life. When I was 5 I was enrolled at Merrimon Christian School, where every morning started with a Bible lesson. So I always believed in God's existence. But when I was in second grade, we were studying the life of an English missionary to India. I don't remember her name. But when she was a little girl, she heard the words to a hymn in church and realized that being a Christian was more than just knowing in your head, you have to accept Christ with your heart. Well, I figured that must be true for me too, so I thought about it at home later that week and said a prayer along the lines of, "God, I want to be a Christian, so I ask you to come into my heart. In Jesus' name, amen." I hoped that had done it, but for a while I worried that maybe I didn't say the right words or something. What if I had the right intentions but did something wrong?
Well, as time passed I began to understand more about what it really meant to be a Christian. It's about the condition of the heart. Like it says in Romans 10:9-10, "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
I was really on fire for God for a while, striving to live for Him in all that I did. That went pretty well until I got to high school. First of all, I was in a school with a freshman class of nearly 400 students, and I knew no one. And secondly, I had been pretty sheltered my entire life. Suddenly for the first time I was exposed to cussing, talk of sex, drugs, alcohol, and when I did make some friends, they were not Christians and led me to do some non-Christian things. I played the part of a good Christian around my family and church, but when I was at school or with my school friends, I was a different person. I cussed like a sailor. I hung out with people whose sole mission in life seemed to be to help me lose my virginity. And though I doubt my conscience would have let me go through with it, I was curious enough to play along. While I never really did anything terrible, I just got involved with a lot of things I'm not necessarily proud of.
When it came time for me to go to college, I began to set my life back on track. Coming to Gardner-Webb for me was one of the greatest things that had ever happened to me. I made good, godly friends and got involved with campus ministries activities such as the Verge. I turned away from all the mess I had been involved with and got my life back on track with God.
What church do you attend? How are you active there?
I attend Broad River Community Church when I'm in Boiling Springs, and on visits home I still attend my home church, South Fork Independent Methodist. I'm honestly not as active as I would like to be at Broad River. I attend church there every Sunday, but that's really about it. I know I should be more plugged-in there, and I would like to be, I just need to learn to manage my time better.
Are you active in the community?
Again, not as active as I feel I should be. Outside of work, I try to stay involved with the GWU theater as much as possible.
Been on any mission trips?
Not yet, but I would love to.
How do you witness to people?
I would say my witness is mostly through my actions. I'm not someone who is really comfortable at this point in just approaching someone and sharing the gospel with them. But I'm more than happy to share my beliefs with someone if they ask me. I just try to live like Christ would live and be a walking example of Him to the world.
What are your parents’ beliefs?
My parents are very conservative (King James Version only) Bible believing Christian people. I mean, I consider myself conservative and they make me look a bit liberal at times. For example, I don't necessarily like tattoos and piercings too much, but I see nothing wrong with them. But to my parents, the body is the temple of God, and tattoos and piercings defile the temple, and are therefore wrong. I don't cuss, but if I hear cussing in a movie I won't dismiss the movie entirely unless it's done completely out of bad taste. My parents will turn off a movie at the first sign of profanity and never turn it back on. They only listen to Christian music because they believe that music that isn't praising God isn't worth listening to. So because of this, I was completely out of touch with most of pop culture until I got to college. It's one reason why I don't like to visit home too much. I love them and I respect their beliefs, but I just feel boxed in around them, like I have no room to breathe.
What is your political standpoint?
I'm conservative. I would never vote straight Republican, but on the whole I agree more with the Republican party on a moral and ethical standpoint.
What do you think are some major issues in the world to you? What do you think you can do about them/want to do about them?
I didn't really know much about issues in the world until relatively recently. I mean, there's hunger, genocide, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, nations that are closed off to Christianity... the list goes on and on. One thing that all of us can do first of all in pray. Secondly, there are plenty of good organizations and charities out there trying to help out. So I would encourage people to find an organization and research them to make sure that the money is being put to good use, then make a donation. And of course, there's always the option to go and do something personally through mission trips if you feel so led. For me right now, I'm looking for some good organizations to support financially once I fix my budget solidly enough.
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