Omnes arrives at SEEK24Years before writing this essay, I led a very ordinary life with my French Christian family with whom I grew up all my life. I was baptized very early, at the age of 2, and I followed the religious teachings that had been instilled in me throughout my childhood. However, when I reached the age of 17, 3 years ago, I realized that I knew nothing of what faith was.
Like many people who call themselves Christians, during my childhood I went to church very often, prayed almost every evening and loved to read a lot of religious books. Throughout this childhood I learned many things about the Christian faith, through catechism from the age of 10 to 13 and from my family, I made Communion and then received Confirmation. Deep down I thought I knew God and that was the basis of my faith. In reality, my faith consisted more of going to church, praying the same thing every night and going to catechism classes. This relationship was obviously fragile, and this fragility had consequences later on.
In the distance
1 year later, at the age of 14, my father died and after that everything was very different. I didn't pray anymore, I had no motivation to go to church, I didn't even take time to read the Bible or other religious texts. What was happening was my first fall in faith. Months later I tried to gradually resume my prayer habits, but something was wrong, it was not like before.
This situation lasted 3 years, during these three years I only prayed when I felt the need and no longer to establish a relationship with God. The truth was that, deep down, I did not know anything about my creator, who he was, why we are on earth... So many questions I asked myself without even wanting to look for the answers.
At the age of 17 I started to discover what life was really about, I am talking about the adult problems that we started to understand, I started to make my first big mistakes and the first difficult decisions of my life. A dark period in my life in which a light appeared in the most unexpected way possible.
Christ reappears
In 2017 I discovered the Tiktok app, like any teenager I installed this app and used it daily. Before long my news feed was filling up with Christian videos, people sharing their experiences, their testimonies as well as their advice. Without me expecting it, I started to realize through other people that I didn't know anything about what faith was. I learned a lot of verses, prayers and new perspectives to understand certain passages of the Bible that I didn't understand before, and little by little God came back into my life, in the most unexpected way possible.
A few months later I felt God begin to act in my life, I felt His presence for the first time in various ways, from people He put in my life to videos that spoke to my specific situation every time I opened the Tiktok application. At that moment I sincerely felt my faith being strengthened, but what was it really?
Far from God, far from home
Two years later, at the age of 19, I made the hardest decision of my life: to leave my family and everything I knew to live in the United States and realize my dream. I decided to settle in Florida for 8 months. These 8 months would be the hardest of my life. Five months after settling in, the loneliness, the lack of loved ones and the distance from my friends made me fall into one of the worst periods of my life, and obviously my faith was impacted.
I could no longer pray, I slept and ate little, to this was added that I no longer had college due to a failed exam, and at that moment I had the impression that everything was going against me, nothing was going well. However, I had that voice, deep inside me, that reassured me, whispering that I should not worry anymore and that everything would return to normal. Since I had no other solution but to find a new university as soon as possible, I searched and found a new university, but day after day new problems arose.
The miracle
A week before the deadline I had before I had to return to my home country, France, I was missing an answer from a member of the university admissions, a wait that lasted months. This answer was decisive for my life and for this dream I had been following. As problems loomed over me, I suddenly decided to pray, to pray from the depths of my heart as I had not done for months. That day, a miracle happened in my life, after praying from the depths of my heart, I received an email the same day, with the answer I was waiting for.
A few days later, almost, I had the impression that all the problems I had at that moment could be solved in an instant. I understood at that moment that my Father, Jesus Christ, had never abandoned me, it was He who had made me understand that I should not worry anymore, He simply wanted me to ask Him for things and from that day on, I know that no matter how many trials, how many times I will have to face whatever happens, He will always be there, and in me forever.
In conclusion, what I would like to convey with this essay is not so much my journey as a message of hope for anyone who feels empty inside having forgotten the power of his Creator, the Father of all. If we listen to Him from the depths of our hearts, He will guide us to the wonderful plan He has prepared for us. The main thing is to trust Him and entrust your life to Him. The process is not easy but what awaits us can only be happiness and peace.
