I grew up in a Christian family. I went to church and I was taught about Jesus and his death on the cross for me and I was involved in lots of different groups in church from a young age.

When I was about 18 I started dating someone I knew a Christian girl shouldn't date but I didn't care. The more we saw of each other the less I cared about being a Christian and more about living only for what felt good at that moment. I made a very clear and very conscious choice to turn my back on God and ignore him. That was my life for almost 5 years.

But then my relationship ended and all of a sudden I was alone. Even though I moved back home with my family I felt completely alone all the time. I knew my family loved me but felt like they were looking at me thinking, 'I told you so'. Soon after I moved home, I went to church with them and while I was there I realised that God would never say I told you so. He was the only one I could depend on no matter what had happened, But I was scared about saying sorry to him. I knew that there would be people who could not forgive some of the things I had done and I thought that meant that God would not forgive me either. But when eventually I did come to him and asked his forgive-ness he did not reject me. No matter what my sin was, no matter what the world thought about my sin, Jesus had taken the punishment for me by dying on the cross. There was nothing I could have done that it did not cover. That knowledge con-tinues to comfort me today.

Knowing Jesus and what he has done for me has given life a new focus. What matters to me now is pleasing God and helping others to meet Jesus too. I'm not claiming I'm perfect or that life is easy. What I do know is that even though I continue to do the wrong thing, through his son Jesus, God has given me more than I would ever deserve. He has given me his unconditional love and forgiveness and has promised me eternal perfection with him in heaven.

So why is being a Christian the most important thing I could tell you about myself? It's because Jesus told his disciples 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me'. Through Jesus I have a personal rela-tionship with the God who created the world, and one day I'll walk side by side with him. And what could possibly be more important that that?

By Kate Haggar. (Moore College Mission Team 2010)