| Waking the narrow path
Throughout my years of growing up in a city I have pretty well always gone to church. My parents put me into a Christian school and I lived a proper life as best as I could. When I was 8 or so I asked Jesus into my heart so that I could be saved and have my name in God’s book of life. Life went on, and I think being so young at the time, I really didn't understand what being saved was like. I knew what it meant, but it didn't really do anything for my life. Throughout high school my thoughts and emotions were similar of my friends and the culture around me. They had nothing to do with how the bible says to think and behave...I was being moulded into a product of a post-modernism influenced culture. A culture that says it’s ok to do and believe what you want.
Fast forward to grade 12 and I got some new friends and got into the party crowd. Some nights I would come home and puke until early morning because I was so sick from the alcohol. I thought going out every weekend and getting wasted was the funnest time of my life; I loved it. This went on for 4 year and during that time I got into all sorts of terrible stuff. I tried drugs, listened to horrible music, and overall just wasted my life. I watched things on TV that I shouldn’t with not even a hint of guilt. I was a totally different person than what I thought I would be when I was younger. The saddest thing was that I thought I was a Christian the whole time because I knew other people who called themselves Christians that did the same thing. The term Christian is constantly being defined and redefined and I was in the middle of it.
Even though I was living a life of sin the thought of Christ constantly lingered in the back of my head. Instead of ignoring it, all I had to do was answer it. I went from no praying at all to saying the Lord's Prayer at night. Shortly after I started dating a non-Christian who is the sweetest girl I ever met and the best thing that happened to me. I wanted so badly for her to ask Jesus into her life like I did when I was younger. The thought of it was really digging at me, so I picked up "More than a Carpenter" by Josh Mcdowell. I read the book myself and started having a spiritual revelation. The book didn’t transform me, it just helped get me back onto the right track. Every day and night I would pray to Jesus and ask him to come into my life. I wanted it more then ever to be changed and to have him in my heart again. One night about 2 week later, I was over at my girlfriend’s house and I read the last two chapters to her. She had always believed in God, but thought all it took to get to heaven was to be a good person. Well, while reading those chapters she broke into tears and I couldn't hold mine back either. At that moment she said a prayer with me and we both asked Jesus into our lives. I was the happiest guy in the world! The joy was so huge I didn’t even know what to say; helping someone become saved felt amazing.
From that day forward I have strived to be close to my Lord and Saviour. You see, this time it was different, I didn’t just say a prayer, but I talked to the Lord and I MEANT what I said. I yearned and ached for him to live in my life. I asked him what I would have to do to let this happen and said I would do anything it takes. That was about 6 months ago and right now I can say that I am the same person in the flesh - but with a whole different mindset and attitude towards life. Things I used to watch on TV, I could care less about. I stopped drinking and now have a more gentle heart when dealing with tough people and situations. I also don’t think I have said a single cuss word since then. I came across this excerpt that couldn’t describe my transformation anymore perfectly:
Paul the Apostle said that when a person has a real encounter with the true God, that relationship will transform him or her into a new creation: "Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence" (2 Corinthians 5:17)  | 
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