Will my classmates ever know Jesus?

I walk out of class in a daze. So much sadness. So much pain. Jesus, will these people ever come to know you? Will they ever experience your life change? When will they experience your healing, forgiveness, redemption, grace and love?

This is my last semester of undergrad at the University of South Florida. I’m taking a class called Storytelling, and each week we share personal stories from our lives. During class last week, students shared one sad story after the next. Topics included: abortion, death, getting kicked out of the church, loss of friends, moving, getting arrested, abuse, and more. I was left questioning, God, when will you change their hearts?

In class, I looked around at my classmates and thought how beautiful each person was because God created them in his image. God, shouldn’t that mean you care about them? Yet, they don’t know you at all. Do they want to know you? Do they even have the information that you exist to be able to make this decision?

So many thoughts. So many questions.

Then, I think about how God saved me. What makes me different? Why did God choose me? I’m just like them. I have similar stories of pain and brokenness. I have screwed up just like them. What makes me different than them?

This day was a wake up call. I’ve been pursing Jesus for over three years now. Most days I forget what life is like without him- how my life was before I surrendered my life to Jesus. And as I sat in that class, watching my peers cry as they told their honest stories of loss and pain, the feelings came back to me. The feelings of a life without Jesus. Without Jesus, I felt so alone. I felt so lost in this world, wondering if I would ever be satisfied with my life, if I would ever find true love, or if I ever would feel beautiful.

My peers, my classmates, the girl sitting right next to me who 14 years ago was forced to abort her baby, these hearts may not know that they have a choice to live a life free from the brokenness. They may not know that they can walk away from their brokenness and experience a fulfilling life in Jesus.

I do not know why God chose me, because I am just like my classmates, but I do know that Jesus is the answer. When I know that Jesus saved me,  yet choose to walk away from God and disobey him, I’m slapping God in the face. Every time I choose to sin, I tell God that I understand that there are people out there who do not know him, yet I do and I chose my desires over his. I choose to be like my classmates who don’t know Jesus instead of living like I do know Jesus.

I do not want to live like that.

I do not want to live life like the gospel has not effected my heart.

I do not want to live in a little Christian bubble and be oblivious to the brokenness that exists all around me.

Every day, I take it for-granted that I know Jesus, while there are people sitting next to me who do not know him.

The next day during my quiet time, Jesus showed me a passage that relates perfectly to this. Hebrews 10:23-26 states,

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.”

God is faithful. Jesus will be coming back to earth and he will have victory over everything.

God cares about each and every one of my classmates, and he wants to know them so badly that he allowed his son Jesus to die for them. Jesus died for each of my classmates and he died for you.

If you have never made the decision to give Jesus your life, you too can experience a new life of fulfillment. And if you have given your life to Jesus, never forget the painful past you experienced of living without Jesus. Keeping those feelings in mind will help you remember why sharing the good news of Jesus with others is so important.

Share Jesus with the women in your life.

Experience Jesus. Experience His joy. Experience His freedom.

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