Guest Post: God Gives Hope

{This is the first Guest Post on God's Grace! My good friend Hope [disclaimer: Hope is not her real name] has been gracious enough to share her beautiful story on my blog! I hope that her story can encourage all of you!} 
 

When I started high school, I had no idea what to expect. I was transitioning from a private school with 75 eighth graders to public high school with over a thousand freshmen. With no friends there, it was a really daunting thing.

Then, my friends gradually starting fighting and falling apart. Of course, I was always stuck in the middle which is a difficult thing.

One of my friends started going through depression and I was the only one she trusted enough to tell everything to. Mixed with my own loneliness and past pains, it pushed me into my own depression.

It was a really dark time. I couldn't really sleep. I barely ate at all. I started doubting my self-worth and God's love for me.

That led to me cutting myself several times. I didn't cut really big; I didn't want people to notice and say anything about it. I even started considering suicide. I thought no one would REALLY care if I was gone.

This went on for several months. I continued to go to church, but it was just to appease my parents and it felt pretty empty to me. I never wanted to be around anyone, especially Christians; I thought that if they knew what was going on, they would judge me and hate me.

At Easter time, I went to a special service with my family. My church always does something really big.

This time, they paired up with Pixar to come up with some really cool special effects. It showed the outside of an old, charming old house. Then they showed the inside, and it was a disgusting mess. With the music, that really touched my heart. I walked out in tears.

Somewhere between Easter and summer, my mom found out about me cutting myself. She sent me to counseling, which made me feel like there was something wrong with me. But when I went, it actually helped quite a bit. The counselor read 1 Kings 18:28 and Jeremiah 29:11 to me and that really hit home.

After that, I kept coming coming across Jeremiah 29:11 and it kept me going. 

I still didn't really like going to church though, especially the student service. But somehow, I got roped into going to the summer camp that my church has for high schoolers. I was dreading spending a week at the beach with hundreds of people that I didn't know.

It turns out, that God would use that camp to change my life. The people I met were amazing, the services were incredible, and the music was inspiring. I decided to rededicate my life to Christ. I called my mom in the middle of the night to tell her and we cried together.

In front of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people, I was re-baptized in the ocean.

Since then, I've met wonderful new friends and repaired some of my old relationships as well. I have found my calling and will follow God's purpose for my life.

I would tell anyone who is going through depression that they're not alone. There are others that have gone through what they have and God loves them very much, and he cries every time we hurt.

Life doesn't get better, but God makes us stronger so that we can move mountains.