...to LIVE is CHRIST

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was about a year ago in Ghana, Africa that I gave my life to Christ. I was out there for a study abroad program and the last thing I had on my mind was to end up at the feet of the Lord. At about 4pm Monday October 26, 2009 I was in my dorm room feeling like I had no identity, I was defined by all that surrounded me. I started to think about a quote a friend once told me, which was “If what you have makes you who you are, than who are you, when it is all taken away from you”. Repeating this to myself made me break down into tears, and it was because I had been living a life thinking that money was all. I thought that by looking cute in my car, rocking the latest fashion items and the latest cell phones, I had it made. But I was wrong, I was in Ghana with nothing but my thoughts and my thoughts were just telling me to end my life because there was no purpose in moving forward. I was alone, no family, no friends, no boyfriend, no money; It was like I was strip down naked. I had nothing. I kept crying asking myself “who am I ?” I couldn’t come up with something valuable because all this time I had been living my life for the world, a world that gives you all you want and then brings you down with it. Well that day I cried out to God for the first time I can ever remember. I didn’t always believe in God, but I mean I had it all, why need God? So I never really put too much mind on Him, and religion can get a little bit complicated. I just brushed Him off and kept it going. However, He was the only one on my mind that day. I felt like I was in a pit hole and couldn’t see the light, like there was no way out for me. Still I cried out and said “God if You really exist, I need You to come into my life...now.” Little did I know that the Bible says “Ask, and you shall receive, Seek and you shall find, Knock and the door will be open to you.” [Matthew 7:7] And God is so faithful to His word, that at that very moment with my eyes wide open I saw two big hands reaching out to me, telling me “Welcome to my kingdom, everything is going to be alright.” I heard that over and over again. It is as if these hands came to lift me up to take me somewhere. All I knew at this point was that I wanted to know is God. He revealed himself to me when I cried out to him, what more can I ask for? It is unfortunate that many of us have to go through such situations where God is our only hope so that we may seek Him. But it was my time I guess, it was time for me to open my eyes to the truth. That day, in my room, I got on my knees and asked for forgiveness in Jesus’ name for every lie, for all my selfish ways, my perverseness, and for the idolatress life I was living. Never did I think I would be asking for forgiveness for such things, but there I was. I didn’t know much about the Bible, didn’t have a clue why Jesus died on the cross, but I was convinced that there is a living God. Now I attend an amazing church where God has filled me with Spirit and now I also know why he sacrificed his only Son, “so that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life” [John 3:16].


My name is Maricarmen and for me to live is Christ.