Wake-Up Call

11% of U.S. adults do not believe in God. As for me, I believe God is everywhere. I believe he has a path for everyone and following it will lead you in the right direction. I also believe in distractions and losing sight of God and his path. This I believe because it happened to me.

I was baptized catholic, attended church every Sunday, and religion every Tuesday and Thursday. I never really thought about what they were teaching me, I just kind of went and it became routine. At 12, my family switched to a non-denominational church. Reading right from the Bible didn’t do it for me, I needed it explained and at my new church, they did. I started to actually listen rather than just hear. I began to pray every night and put meaning behind every prayer. I even read the bible for fun. I guess you could have called me a “Jesus freak”.

Not that I cared if anyone knew how I felt about God, but I didn’t really show that side of me. My high school life and being and ‘average’ teen became most important. My path became a blur, and before I knew it, I was off in a completely different direction. I stopped praying and going to church, summer softball made it impossible, and I started to completely abandoned God and that part of my life. I was lost and it didn’t hit me until I was at Wal-Mart with my friend, sitting in the back room with two security cops.

Busted for shoplifting, I was scared. I’ve never been in this type of situation and I knew I wasn’t the person I was depicted as while sitting in that back room. I felt alone, mentally and spiritually. God wasn’t with me and it was my fault. When was it ever ok for me to put myself in these types of situations? I am not this kind of person and I’m stronger than this. I broke down, and the whole time they were talking to us, I was a wreck.

That weekend I went to church. I didn’t really listen but I jotted a note down in the empty space of the handout. It read: ‘I want and need God back in my life. I’m lost without him guiding me in the right direction.’ I had no idea I was so lost until that incident and I realized that I’d been ignoring God and his cry for me to see what was happening. As crazy as it sounds, I’m thankful this happened. I never go a day without thanking God for the things he‘s blessed me with and I’ll never go a day again without doing so. I believe God is everywhere and that he was there that day “showing” me where my path without him was heading. I’ve never had such a strong wake-up call. For this I believe.