"All my life, I've always wanted to be where the action was," recounts Jeff.
The kinds of priorities Jeff had in life included being a starter on the school basketball team or a leading musician in the school band, having a great girlfriend, or having an exciting summer job. For four summers, Jeff had a job where he was a whitewater raft guide. "That was the coolest job in the world, no pun intended!" says Jeff. "Talk about action, it was white knuckle rides every day!"
At the same time, Jeff also had spiritual values in his life. He grew up in a great family where he went to church on a regular basis. "It wasn't a big priority in my life, but I believed in God, and tried my best to live a good life, thinking that's all there was to being a Christian," says Jeff.
When he was in high school, some friends invited Jeff to attend a meeting in a nearby city. "I had no idea what I was getting myself into," says Jeff. "I was really just 'going along for the ride' thinking that's where the action was."
At that meeting, Jeff learned that there's more to being a Christian that just believing in God, going to church, and trying to live a good life.
"I learned that being a Christian means making Jesus Christ the Lord of my life, giving him control of my life, and having a personal relationship with God," says Jeff. "That made a lot of sense to me. I had been only scratching the surface of the Christian faith before."
That night Jeff asked Jesus Christ to come into his life, forgive him for acting against God's will (thus breaking his relationship with God), and make him the kind of person that God wants him to be. "Something changed on the inside of me that night, and continues to change me, from the inside out," says Jeff.
Jeff has come to realize that being a Christian gives him the greatest sense of being "where the action is." "I have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe! I can go to him with all my problems, concerns, hopes and dreams, and he gives me the strength to deal with all of them," says Jeff. "Daily, I live my life with Jesus and every day is a new discovery of what God has for me to do. It makes me think of a place in the Bible that says, 'If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…. the old has gone, the new has come.'"
Now Jeff really finds himself living where the action is!
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