Jay Didriksen
Jay Didriksen's Story
Away to School
I went off to college soaring like a bird without direction.
I was a divided person in High School. On the outside I was a regular rebellous teenager with poor grades and an uncanny knack for drawing disciplinary action. On the inside I believed in Jesus whom I desperately wanted to follow. My faith was a wave tossed back and forth in the sea, one day lavishly sinning the next passionately sharing my faith.
Living as two different people caused stress and tension that removed any real joy and left only disappointment and hurt. Graduation felt like a weight lifted from my chest and for the first time I could breathe easily the essences of freedom. The only decision I knew I didn't want to make was to entrap myself in a similar inescapable position. When I finally graduated High School I was eccstatic. Finally, I could become me. The only problem was I didn't know who I was.
I went off to college soaring like a bird without direction. Just before leaving I broke up with my high school sweatheart and the first day on campus I met another girl and began another poor relationship. The inhibitions were gone and I felt the real me emerge. The inner me that loved God took a back seat. After all no one knows me at college why not do whatever I want? Freedom never tasted better.
The road I had chosen was again walking into the trap I had feared. In perfect stealth, sin would again control my life and separate me from God. I would never find any purpose in my life and frustration and unhappiness would have captured my heart.
God did not allow me to stray far. Here I was in the worst dorms on campus located under ground in the area named "the dungeon" and my roomate is a senior guy named Brad. Brad was a radical Christian with strange doctrine but his faith in God was above everything else in his life. He asked if I was a Christian and I said yes of course here is my Bible. Then he asked me why I never read it? I was convicted and inturn attacked his weird beliefs. He chose to defend himself by using the Bible and would only accept Biblical authority in arguments. Suddenly, I found myself coming home at 1am to argue with Brad rather than staying out all night to party.
These friendly yet challenging conversations pulled me away from the sinful activities I initially chose and I broke up with the girl I had met. I felt a strong desire to read the Bible and to find out what I believed and not what Brad or my parents told me. I was so hungry for the truth I began connecting with different Christian ministries on campus, attending various Churches, and finished reading the entire Bible my first semester.
I found fullfillment and a foundation. Something that has become my hearts desire and has calmed the waves and rebuked the storm in my life. I found a God who told me who I am because I know who he is. I have purpose for I was made for God's pleasure. I have a relationship and a treasure that will not fade when I die. Though my circumstances and struggles are impossibly strong I have been given everything I need including a true and pure perspective on life.