Angie Tang

I

was born into a typical Christian family, and was raised in Christian faith. Ever since before I can even remember, my family has been taking me to church on Sundays where I learned Bible stories but left as if they had no meaning to me. When I was little, I basically attended church out of habit, and because I knew nothing else to do on Sunday morning. When I was in fourth grade, I first attended VBS at CGBC, and that was when I accepted Jesus into my life. At that point though, I was just so scared about the idea of going to hell, so I prayed the prayer and got a bracelet because heaven sounded a lot better than going to hell. From then on, life went on, and it was pretty normal as life could go for a nine year old. I kept doing the same Sunday rituals and read my Bible half-heartedly. I prayed to God when I wanted things, but forget about Him most of the time.

Things were pretty smooth sailing until I reached middle school. Suddenly a lot of my friends left me, and I didn’t have friends anywhere. Then I started blaming my situation all on myself. I was convinced that I could make myself better. I sought approval from the people around me, and I put all my time and effort into that. I was never truly happy because after trying so hard on my own for so long, I still wasn’t the best at grades, school, or sports. In addition, I still didn’t have any friends. I started to not be able to sleep at night because I was too stressed. Lonely and tired, lo and behold, CBM camp came around the corner. I was blessed that year to have a great speaker. The theme that year was about what our identity was in Christ. The speaker spoke about how we don’t need to chase after the things of the world because our identity is in Christ, not in our mistakes, problems or our faults. Jesus had already taken them all off our shoulders when He died on the cross, and He suffered so that we don’t need to carry them anymore. That was when the good news of the gospel became the best and most comforting words I had ever heard. I couldn’t understand why or how God loved me so much, but now I am unexplainably beyond grateful for Him sending Jesus to die for my sins. Jesus became not only my gracious savior, but the greatest friend I ever had and will ever have. He teaches me how to love; He shows me how to trust. I am making the choice of baptism today because I want to publicly declare that I am a sinner, but through God’s grace and mercy, I am saved and I have eternal life because of Jesus’ sacrifice for my undeserving self.

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”