I was raised in a Catholic family.
Around the age of 13, I became a non-believer. Fortunately, unlike most ex-religious people, I never held any "grudge" against God, and I was never set in my non-belief either, instead keeping myself (sort of) humble in accepting the position that I simply didn't know. Regardless, I was too busy becoming a self-absorbed teenager to be thinking too much about the reality of a God... Maybe that's why I became a non-believer in the first place, since I turned into the god of my life, making the idea of a higher power unreal to me?
Three or so years later, I was sweet sixteen, and was growing a tendency to look higher than myself, and by that I mean, I was trying to find the answers to life and all those big questions. I supposed that this was natural, that we all come to a time when we need to find a truth for our existence, and live by it, and in it. For some people, this takes their whole lives, but for me, it only took a few months or so, starting from when I left school in order to give myself the freedom to find the answers through a serious, studious, soul-searching, truth-seeking, journey.
Soon enough, I had developed my own "bible", a book that I would write down important "truths" in, so that I could live by it (it's obvious now that my spirit was yearning for the Holy Bible). As I was developing this humanistic bible of mine by studying many things, I found myself being drawn to Christianity (secretly surprising me), and despite my amazement at this, I never dared question myself as to why this was happening, but I knew deep down: God was calling me. Then something pivotal happened, when I realized this bible I was living by was failing at being a good foundation. I fell into despair, accepting that the wisdom of man and the world would not solve or answer everything, and I paced around my room as I spoke out loud, trying to find a solution, trying to find an answer to it all. When I look back now, I can see that I was actually praying, and this unaware prayer of mine was answered, when a sudden realization lit me up, and delivered me into the truth, the Christ, Jesus.
Now that I was a believer, I unfortunately had to discern many things in Christendom, having to cut away all the flab in order to reveal the one true faith that Christendom had seemingly lost. This took me another few months or so, and after I had come to know all the correct doctrines (baptism being one of them), I nearly ran away from home in order to get baptized. However, I came back home safe, with my parents being very distraught, not really understanding why I did what I did. Very soon after that episode, I got baptized (no running away was necessary) and became a Christian, on 25th May 2013.
Around the age of 13, I became a non-believer. Fortunately, unlike most ex-religious people, I never held any "grudge" against God, and I was never set in my non-belief either, instead keeping myself (sort of) humble in accepting the position that I simply didn't know. Regardless, I was too busy becoming a self-absorbed teenager to be thinking too much about the reality of a God... Maybe that's why I became a non-believer in the first place, since I turned into the god of my life, making the idea of a higher power unreal to me?
Three or so years later, I was sweet sixteen, and was growing a tendency to look higher than myself, and by that I mean, I was trying to find the answers to life and all those big questions. I supposed that this was natural, that we all come to a time when we need to find a truth for our existence, and live by it, and in it. For some people, this takes their whole lives, but for me, it only took a few months or so, starting from when I left school in order to give myself the freedom to find the answers through a serious, studious, soul-searching, truth-seeking, journey.
Soon enough, I had developed my own "bible", a book that I would write down important "truths" in, so that I could live by it (it's obvious now that my spirit was yearning for the Holy Bible). As I was developing this humanistic bible of mine by studying many things, I found myself being drawn to Christianity (secretly surprising me), and despite my amazement at this, I never dared question myself as to why this was happening, but I knew deep down: God was calling me. Then something pivotal happened, when I realized this bible I was living by was failing at being a good foundation. I fell into despair, accepting that the wisdom of man and the world would not solve or answer everything, and I paced around my room as I spoke out loud, trying to find a solution, trying to find an answer to it all. When I look back now, I can see that I was actually praying, and this unaware prayer of mine was answered, when a sudden realization lit me up, and delivered me into the truth, the Christ, Jesus.
Now that I was a believer, I unfortunately had to discern many things in Christendom, having to cut away all the flab in order to reveal the one true faith that Christendom had seemingly lost. This took me another few months or so, and after I had come to know all the correct doctrines (baptism being one of them), I nearly ran away from home in order to get baptized. However, I came back home safe, with my parents being very distraught, not really understanding why I did what I did. Very soon after that episode, I got baptized (no running away was necessary) and became a Christian, on 25th May 2013.
