My name is Sara Anderson and this is My Life:
I still remember it like it was yesterday. I had only been out of high school for a year, and I had trouble sleeping at night...every night. You could say I was somewhat of an insomniac. I would lie awake at night and think, "It's awfully quiet in this house. What if Jesus came back and my family was taken and I'm the only one left here?" This doubt was the first clue that there was something wrong in my spiritual life.
See, I was raised in a Christian home (my dad was a pastor), so Christian morals and beliefs were instilled in me at a very young age. I could recite John 3:16 with my eyes closed AND both hands tied behind my back, I would pray before every meal (God is great, God is good...you probably know the rest), and I ALWAYS remembered to bring my Bible on Sunday and Wednesday nights to church. When I was nine, I walked down the aisle to the front of the church and told my pastor, Pastor Heinz (like the ketchup), that I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart and be baptized. My dad sat me down beforehand and had "the talk" where he asked me what it means to ask Jesus into my heart. I remember panicking, thinking, "Okay, so what is the right answer that will make my dad proud of me and earn me some bonus points?" I don't remember what my answer was, but it must have been good enough because my dad let me get baptized.
Now fast forward about a decade to where I was when I first started writing this: I can't sleep and I have doubts about where I will spend eternity. Over the years, I had learned how to separate my "worldly" life and my "Christian" life. I had learned how to talk "the talk" and walk "the walk" in front of my parents and church family (so well, in fact, that I had convinced almost everyone...including myself...that I was indeed a Christian), but my heart was all wrong. I had never experienced the changed life that I had heard so much about that comes when you surrender your life to Christ. I had the head knowledge, but I was missing the most important part: a heart that beats for Jesus. He was a stranger to me, not because He wanted to be, but because I would not allow Him the place in my life that He so greatly deserved and desired.
When I turned nineteen, certain circumstances in my life led me to realize how everything has absolutely nothing to do with me...and everything to do with Christ. I began to acknowledge His Hand in situations throughout each day and I would ask, "That was You, wasn't it, God?" He became real to me in a way that I had never allowed Him to be before in my life. God was no longer someone that I talked about in Sunday school and church, He was someone I talked to anytime...anywhere.
Since then I have begged Christ for forgiveness, and although I am so very undeserving, He has proven Himself faithful. Is my life perfect? Of course not. And it never will be because I am, and will always be, a sinner. But I have been made complete in Christ, and I can tell you one thing: I now have no doubt whatsoever of where I will spend eternity. I hope to see you there.
