Over Christmas Break, I had gone on a revenge binge. Upset that my so-called boyfriend, the guy to whom I’d “given my virginity,” had not called me, I began dating several different guys from my hometown at the same time. My binge was not in my best interests and caused me to think a lot about how I wanted the rest of my freshman year to go. I experienced a lot of firsts that initial semester that weren’t exactly leading me toward Jesus. But second semester something changed.
I knew enough to know that didn’t want to end up down the path that my experimenting was leading me. I promptly started going to church and searching for accountability. When my “boyfriend” showed up again, we talked. And talked and talked. That’s all we did. I began to learn more about him, his beliefs and his family, things we hadn’t talked about so much before.
I also started focusing more on my studies. I had more time to do that since dating had become low on my priority list. Having put some negative relationship experiences behind me, I wasn’t as curious about guys as I was before. I could focus on the actual subjects I had gone to college to learn. I changed my major away from pre-med. More than half of the girls at my women’s college were pre-med. Did we all have the same skills? Or were we all focused on medicine because we knew it was sure to guarantee a high income that would help us realize a financial goal?
I reminisced on those experiences from my freshman year so that you can know that you’re not alone if you feel like it’s time for you to make a fresh start this year. Isaiah 42:9 says, “The former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” In the passage, Isaiah is prophesying about things God has shown him related to the Israelites and their future. He ultimately tells them about the coming of Christ nearly 700 hundred years in the future.
You may not know the details of your future the way Isaiah knows the details about Christ’s coming, but you can know whether it’s time for you to make a fresh start. Jesus is always calling. He’s calling whomever will answer his plea to be a messenger to lead people into a close relationship with God.
By my senior year of college, my relationship with God was the most important thing in my life, and God was shaping my future right in front of me. That year in the school’s literary magazine, I published a poem called “New Psalm” that expressed my gratitude to God for changing the direction of my life. Psalm 98:1 says, “Oh sing to the Lord a new song! For he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gained him the victory.”
I would love for your story to be shaped by a new direction that has you walking more closely with Jesus every day. If that’s your testimony. Don’t keep it to yourself.
