I was blessed to be raised by parents who love God and grew up in the Church in a small Minnesota town. When I was 4, my dad asked if I wanted to “ask Jesus into my heart” to which I replied “maybe later,” and then immediately went to my bedroom to pray on my own. For years I viewed my faith as something I did and not as my reason for living, like many children who are raised in the Church. But as time went on, being cool didn’t satisfy, being respected didn’t satisfy, and being talented didn’t satisfy. Though my life was going according to plan on the outside, on the inside I started to wonder, “maybe I’d be better off dead.” Jesus called me back to him through a random Pandora playlist. A christian artist came up on a very non-christian station and it was almost as if Jesus was speaking directly to me saying, “Only I can fill this void, and there’s hope for tomorrow if you just accept my love.”

I won’t pretend that my life has been perfect since then; in reality most of the harder things in life have come after that point. However, the difference is that now I don’t have to question what my purpose is or who my identity is in. Because of God’s great mercy, I am still here and blessed to be called his son.