My name is Shayne. I’m 19 this year. I grew up in a Christian family. I aspire to be an inventor. But, to me, the greatest invention that not even I can surpass is the free gift of salvation that God has given me.
My parents made it a point to grow me spiritually. I was baptised as a child at Saint Andrew’s Cathedral before we changed church to WEFC. Each day, they read the Daily Bread devotionals with me before going to school in the mornings and bible verses at night. They also ensured that I never skipped a day of church (voluntarily), and even entrusted a godmother to watch over my spiritual growth. At the time I rarely paid attention during any of the above-mentions of scripture readings as I was distracted with having fun. In those growing years, I struggled to make friends and had an obvious lack of self control. I was quite a mess. Desperate for change, I resorted to people-pleasing to the point of losing my self-Identity and becoming destructive and violent.
The turning point came a few days before my Secondary 4 mock N-level exam. I felt really unprepared and scared as I had neglected revision. I was way too worried, anxious, and scared to sleep so I started praying — apologizing to God for neglecting to work hard and asking for peace. I still recall very clearly after finishing that prayer, I felt the strangest yet strongest feeling of relief wash over me. It was at that moment I knew I could trust him with my life, and that I also wanted to know him more. I began to take my own spiritual walk more seriously.
I realised that relying on myself was not, and is not possible for saving myself. Relying on others is not viable either as even the best of friends have let me down. The only everlasting solution was to put my trust in God to let him handle my problems instead of trying to resolve it on my own. I need him more than he needs me and he’s been a really good friend in my life protecting me from dangers since birth when there were complications from my premature birth. I realised that there were many occasions where I forgot about him or even got angry with him at times, but he still continued to help me with my problems.
Over time, this understanding has extended to the problem of my sin. I realise it is not viable to rely on myself or on others to do anything to resolve the problem of sin in my life and in my heart. Because Jesus, on the cross, did everything that was necessary to restore my relationship to God, I now have the confidence that I am never alone. He will be always by my side quietly guiding me, reassuring me whenever I feel worried or anxious, and reminding me to think carefully before making decisions. With him I don’t really have anything to prove myself to anyone and know that it's okay to be myself.
The reason why I want to be baptised this Easter is to obey God’s command to do so (Matthew 28:19). I’ve been meaning to get baptised for a while but I kept making excuses to myself and kept putting it off. I didn’t really understand the meaning of baptism until I attended the Baptism Grow Class.
To sum it all up, I really want to thank God for watching over me all my life — for keeping me safe, for guiding me, for accompanying me, for listening to me even though there are many times where I have not been compliant and made silly mistakes, and helping me out the pits I’ve fallen into. Most of all, I would like to thank him for saving me from my sin.
