After going to church literally since before I was born, I
was saved at dance class when I was nine years old. It was the last week of
class, and the teacher gave us the "Jesus talk" at the end of the
night, then asked if anyone wanted to pray with her. My hand shot up almost
before I realized what was happening; I had been feeling the pull of the Holy
Spirit and was almost just waiting for someone to ask me about it. I can
specifically remember praying to ask Jesus into my heart, promising to “live
for You, and dance for You.” Nothing had ever felt so right.
I started out as a super enthusiastic follower of Christ,
but began to lose steam when my attempts to invite my classmates to church were
turned down again and again. In middle school I began to face doubt and fear
that kept me from sharing my faith and from growing as much as I could have; I
even began to doubt my salvation. After recommitting my life at Falls Creek the
summer after eighth grade, I continued to try and grow in Him, but I was still
relying too much on my own ability to accomplish all the things and be
"good enough" and not enough on the grace and power of Christ. This
changed starting in eleventh grade, when I met an older and more mature
believer who began to mentor and disciple me. That was the point when I really
started to grow as a believer. After I graduated high school, I began to seek a
community of other believers, and after months of asking and waiting, I finally
began to find that at the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry).
My second semester in college, I went through a season of
disappointment and isolation. I auditioned for the dance program at my school
and was told, politely, that I did not have enough skill or experience to
complete the degree I wanted. This forced me to reconsider everything I had
planned for my life for the last ten years or so, and I was understandably
shaken up by it. I also felt very alone at that point as my roommate moved out
due to health problems and I had few real friends. I came as close in that
season as I ever have to being really, truly depressed, and felt that there was
no one that I could really talk to about it.
In the midst of that season, however, God began to grow my
trust in Him in a very real way. It was as though He was telling me to just be
brave enough to trust Him for one more day as I forced myself to complete dance
classes that now seemed useless to me and was surrounded by all the people who
were "good enough" to complete the program by which I had been
rejected. And the way the God communicated this immensely powerful message to
me was through my favorite artist in the history of the universe, Adam Young
(better known as Owl City).
In the months that followed, more and more of my fandoms (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and various artists) began to show links to Biblical themes and truths. Things that I already knew,
verses that I had memorized years ago, and stories that I could repeat from
memory, suddenly took on a new meaning as my brain, and the Holy Spirit,
connected them to songs and stories that I had grown to love. Because, deep
down, the songs that we sing about our love or loss or longing, the stories we
write about adventure or romance or revolution, all point back to God.
The purpose of this blog is simple: to express the
connections that I have found between “secular” fandoms and spiritual truths,
and to encourage you, my fellow fan-people, to do the same. I pray that the
Lord will speak to your heart, whether you believe in Him or not, in ways you
never thought possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment