Living Life (12) Testimony — Daniel Kim
Hey everyone, it’s Daniel. Today, I want to talk about how Living Life impacted my life.
To start, I want to go back to about a year ago. At that time, I was living in Waterloo as a student, so the biggest things on my mind were doing well in my classes, meeting new people, overall living my university life to the fullest. These things were mostly everything I could think about. So, my church life before Living Life started was quite dull and felt like a routine. Waking up at 7 AM every Sunday morning and spending 3 hours on the GO bus to get to church every Sunday almost felt like a chore. Looking back, it’s really sad how I felt about church. In high school, I had heard how easy it was for university students to fall apart from church and God, and I don’t think I was an exception. I gradually became less enthusiastic about coming to church. As I grew more and more distant from God, I noticed that I would feel upset more often. Stress and loneliness often overwhelmed me, and things like talking to my parents about school made me feel depressed and cornered. Although I knew that this was thanks to my negligence, I kept convincing myself that I could fix these problems on my own. Even though the answer to my problem was in my reach, I procrastinated solving this problem and I resorted to other ways of dealing with my stress, like playing video games and hanging out with my school friends. This went on for about a year, until living life registrations were announced.
Honestly, at the time, I simply saw Living Life as just something to check off my list of “series that I’ve completed at church”. But then I remembered the problems I was going through, and I saw it as an opportunity to reconnect with God and take some control in my life. Something that worried me about taking Living Life was that it would be running at the same time as my first semester of second year. But with enough encouragement from others, I signed up. Going into the first class, I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I just left it up to God and Caleb and proceeded on through the weeks. For 13 weeks, I got on a Zoom Call with Caleb and he talked to me about God and church life. With every session, I learned more and more about how God works in people’s lives, and I found myself inspired to apply it all in my life. I don’t want to spoil any of the good stuff for anyone who hasn’t taken Living Life yet, but I will say that it was enjoyable for me because it seemed like a different environment than a typical Sunday service, which felt fresh and was enjoyable. Simply doing the Bible readings and attending each session was enough to make me feel like I was connecting to God again. It was easy, and most importantly, it was rewarding. By the end of the 13 weeks, I really felt like the choice I made to take Living Life was right.
Before Living Life, I was constantly feeling lost, stressed, and alone. These emotions were really bothering me, and the worst part of it was that I would never turn to the right solution. And although Living Life didn’t turn me into an overly passionate and intense Christian, it was the space and time that felt new and fresh, where I could connect with God and learn more about him. Basically, it was just what I needed. To be honest, I’m still dealing with those feelings that I felt before those 13 weeks. The difference is the confidence I have that I can look to God when I’m overwhelmed. Being reminded every week that God was in my life helped me see that I wasn’t alone. The wisdom I got from each lesson revealed what kind of God, God was, and it made me excited to indulge in this relationship I had with him.
I want to thank the people that encouraged me to take Living Life, Pastor Caleb for making every session engaging and leaving me with inspiration and excitement, and obviously God for making such meaningful impacts in my life. Thanks for listening!
