The Light in my life

In March 2020 I created this website. Why? 

The truth ... I forgot my best friend’s birthday. 

This is something I swore I’d never do; I clung to remembering my friend Leah for so many years. How could I forget the birthday of the brightest light I’ve seen walk this earth in my lifetime? 

This website was created to share her story and help lead others to Christ. Yet, I never shared her story. I’ve been stuck for a year now on how to do that. How does the self-prophesied death of an 18-yr-old help anyone? I’m sure there are many people that can relate to not understanding God, as I did as a child; Also, to being angry with God, as I was as an adult. I suppose I’ll start at the beginning.

This is Our story; this is My testimony:

Childhood was not easy for me. My Father died just before I turned 3-yrs-old. My Mother’s faith was strong through her tears. I didn’t understand why God would let so much sorrow fall upon a family. I went down many dark roads as a child. I knew of Jesus, but I never built a relationship with him. I saw sin as a failure, so in myself I felt failure. There was an internal battle for me as a child. Anxieties, depression, and self-doubt consumed me. I reached out to everything this world could give me to try to take the pain away… but… I never reached out to God. I never asked him for help. By the age of 14, I looked in the mirror and I saw evil was winning the battle for me. I saw evil looking back at me. 

At that time, I had a lot of dark influences in my life. I had some lights too. My friend Leah had been a light in my life since the second grade. Leah was a strong, fiery redhead who would often push me to be a better me. She spoke words of encouragement and guidance to me. Sometimes I would listen; sometimes I did not. She was there the night I looked in the mirror and saw that evil was consuming me. She saw it too. There was an intense storm that night, a storm with thunder, lighting and wind that was unlike any other. Leah took me upstairs to her room. She opened her Bible and started reading to me from the book of Revelations.  She was reading to me prophecies of what is to come. Prophecies of our world’s end.

When she finished reading, Leah started to tell me about what she dreamed of for her future. She cried as she told me of her dreams of going to college, getting married, and having children. You could tell she was visualizing it. She told me she knew she would never see those dreams come true. She was certain of that. In her words she told me, “I’m not even sure that I’ll make it to our high school graduation.”  

Four years later, nearing the end of our senior year of high school, Leah went into the hospital with pneumonia. Everyone said she’d be fine; she was young, strong, and a fighter

I knew better … 

Leah was in a coma during our high school graduation ceremony. A couple weeks later, she passed away.

I have rarely shared this story for three reasons: 

·  I was selfish

·  I didn’t think anyone would believe me

·  I was angry with God

It took me 33 years, but I've finally come to understand why we live in a broken world. We made the choice at the beginning of time. It was never God's will for us to know sickness, hunger, anxiety, nor death. We chose knowledge of good and evil. We chose to know death. 

Now we have a new choice. Will we choose life after death? 

For me, I choose to seek after The Lord with All of my heart. I choose to live in true repentance - a change in direction from a life of sin. I choose to pick up my cross and follow Jesus. I choose life.

My friend, Leah, will not return to me

Yet, I will go to her

This I am certain