On a serious note, today marks the 7th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton Colorado. This was the tragedy that took place when two teenage guys by the names of Eric and Dylan went into their high school with guns and explosives and proceeded to kill 12 students and 1 teacher.This day is a painful one to family, friends, survivors and etc. It also happens to be part of my Christian story...and here it is.
On April 20th 1999, my sisters, mom and I were getting ready to go on a field trip, my mother wanted me to turn on the TV to see what the weather forecast was going to be like. Instead of seeing weather reports, there was live footage of high schoolers running for their lives, fleeing from Columbine High School, where earlier a horrible school shooting took place.
This did not have a huge effect on me until I found out later that there were students who were killed at Columbine because they stated they were followers of Christ. Now up to this point, I was a follower of Christ, but a hidden/quiet/closet type; I kept what I believed to myself and I didn't really give much thought to people and where'd they go if they were to die... that is, Heaven or Hell. After finding out that Rachel Scott and Cassie Bernall died for what I (supposedly) believed, I questioned my heart and what I truly believed.
I started thinking this: If someone was to approach me and ask me with a gun pointed at my head, DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD? How would I respond?
I prayed it over and I talked/prayed to God that I was willing to step forward and be ready for whatever life through my direction, that I too was willing to lay my life down for what I believed as a follower of Christ...
Over the 7 years that have passed, I haven't had a gun pointed at my head to make a point on what I believe, but by no means has it been easy. The hardships that I face vary, but as a follower of Christ, I am ready- If I am questioned if I am a follower of Christ or not, and it's a matter of life and death, I know how to answer and I believe with my whole heart, I am a follower of Christ.
And so 4/20/99 will remain in my heart forever,
even though it will remain a tragedy, God has used it and made it a triumph for me.
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1 comments:
Thank you, Nathanael for your clear, well-written testimony. And of the martyrs of Columbine, may their memory be eternal! Aiónia i mními aftón!
Altho I had already given my life to Christ as a 25 year old thirty years ago, something changed radically in me when I read dc Talk's book "Jesus Freaks II" at the age of 55. As I was reading it, and being greatly blessed by the stories of martyrs thru the ages, I spontaneously cried at only two stories: I cried when I read the story of a Romanian Orthodox priest who was dying in prison with other Christians and the guy who turned him in was dying there with them, and the priest comforted and forgave the dying communist. That made me cry. But when I read the story of the martyrs of Ecuador, Nate Saint and the others, I not only cried, but cried uncontrollably, and something in me just broke, like the alabaster jar of ointment that Mary the sister of Lazaros broke to anoint the feet of Jesus with. Something in me broke like that, and from that point on, my life in Christ has entered a new uncharted region, that of full-time missionary, not that I've quit my job and gone into the missions; no, I just know that every moment "alone or in a crowd" I am a missionary, an ambassador for Christ to myself and to others by my every thought, word, or action. "A city set on a hill cannot be hid." So now, I don't hide from the world, at any time, who I am serving, who has saved me, and who is searching for them. It is He, no longer me. That is how my contact with the martyrs has changed my life—forever. Glory to God! Dhóxa tó Theó!
—Romanós
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