Student Profile: Paul
an engineer’s perspective | university…life preparation | random facts
Is being a ‘good person’ enough to get you to heaven?:
>Right from the start, my family has been instrumental in the formation of my values. They taught me to maintain a high moral standard. Other than that, roommates and friends in university have challenged me to maintain that moral standard even if it means sacrifice.
I always tried to maintain a consistent moral standard. It was important to me to be nice to people and not to make enemies. I thought that if I was a generally good person I was pretty sure I would be going to heaven. I never wanted a lot of stuff, just a good reputation.
I had learned that Jesus was the son of God but my time for God was one hour each Sunday when I went to Church and the rest of the time was for myself. During the week I tried to keep good principles but God was someone that set the rules, not someone who was interested in me and someone who would help me keep them.
Within the context of a summer camp, I heard a speaker explain that God created us with a purpose to know Him personally and that knowing Him in this way is really eternal life.
He went on to explain that there is something that keeps us from that personal knowledge of God — something called sin gets in the way. I came to see that even if I am a generally good person, one sin is enough to tip the scales against me in light of God’s perfect standard.
I saw that the result of going my own way is a broken relationship with God and eternal separation from him. That is why Jesus came to live a perfect life on earth and die on the cross in our place. He who never sinned died like a sinner (the cross was one of the worst forms of capital punishment in those days) and suffered this separation from God so that we wouldn’t have to.
I may have heard it before, but this is the first time that it became clear to me. I knew that I had to respond to this truth and accept what Jesus had done for me and make a commitment to God.
That same evening, I took a look at my life, and I saw that I was living two lives: the life of a good Christian at camp, and the life of a pretty nice guy at home, but with no real recognition of God. I realized that it was that moment where I had to make a choice between the two lives. I decided then and there that I was going to give my life to Jesus and follow him for the rest of my life.
>I did struggle with applying my faith to my life. I still had to go home and hang with the same friends. I didn’t know anyone else, specifically no one who believed the same things I did now. It was a difficult year.
It wasn’t until I went to university that I met some other Christians and I learned more about how to ‘walk the walk’ while ‘talking the talk.’
I took steps of faith and took on new challenges. There’s a lot of them at university. God is with me at all times, He answers prayer; He gives me the strength to live the Christian life. It is not up to me. I just have to give myself to him and let him live through me.
I think my life has challenged others around me to make their faith real to them, and not just pay lip-service to it.
Knowing that I was promised eternal life with God, the daily challenges as a student become less important, and therefore less stressful. As long as I know that I do what I am capable of, God will fill in the rest. If I don’t get the results that I or others are expecting, there is no shame, because I know that God has a plan for my life.
>I think that a relationship with God is the only thing of eternal importance. There is so much to gain with God, and so much to lose without Him.
Related reading:
- Questions about spirituality? Read our spirituality articles
- What’s your Spiritual Interest Quotient? Take our SIQ quiz and find out
- How you can know God personally
- Back to Student Profiles
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