Growing up Christian, I never knew a relationship with God was possible. I knew how to pray, but I didn't know that God would answer. In high school, I fell the deep dark pit of high school relationships—rejected by my best friend.

One night I was so broken that I wished I had never existed. As I sat on my bedroom floor crying, I spontaneously cried out to God in my misery, "Jesus! Please take this from me! It's too much for me to handle. I give it to You, I give it to You!"

Suddenly, I was not depressed anymore. I just no longer cared. It was so unexpected. God actually answered my prayer! Who knew that He did such things?! Forgiveness flowed effortlessly from my soul and I went to school the next day as if nothing had ever happened.

In the midst of all this, I was also dealing with a bully. Well, maybe "bully" isn't the right word. He was quite a fun and outgoing kid―however, he kept annoyingly punching me whenever he saw me at school. I tried my best to ignore him, but then I had this idea to distract him with friendly conversation and jokes. My plan worked. It actually worked so well that he went from bullying me to chasing after me to be his friend. This wasn't what I had expected. From that point forward, he escorted me to all my classes and drove me crazy.  

At the start of the next year, I had an encounter with God that changed my life forever. It was a Wednesday night in January 2014 at my youth church. As we were laying hands on each other and praying, I felt the Spirit of God touch my heart. The sensation was like a warm love burning in my chest. Inwardly, I was awakened to the reality of God and I felt so special to Him. I knew He had chosen me for such a time as this. These encounters continued happening to me at every consecutive church service. As a result, I became a new person. God's love filled the emptiness inside my soul. I no longer needed an (earthly) relationship to meet my needs. I was taken; taken by the Lord.

Arriving back at school, I spotted my "escort" at the door. Instead of getting upset with him like usual, I couldn't help but greet him as if he had always been my friend. Inside my mind I was thinking, "You're lucky today. I do NOT want to be nice to you. You don't deserve this." But because of God's love so deeply permeating my soul, I could not resist the urge to be kind. Eventually, this guy ended up following me to church and giving his life to Christ! Glory to God!