Finding your identity in Christ can be complicated or not, if you’re lucky. For me it was an emotional roller coaster with awkward turns and dips! Coming to Christ felt like I was really in the twilight zone. God totally flipped my world upside down. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by white people, and I had no idea why they were being so nice to me! In this short blog post, I am going to tell you my story of how I came to Christ and how the love of Jesus has transformed my life from Hood to Holy.
I was born in Austin, TX only weighing 2 pounds and 7 ounces but raised in downtown Louisville. The doctor told me that I wasn’t going to live 24 hours! God had a different plan. Growing up both my parents was drug dealers, thiefs, liars, and anything you can associate with being a criminal… they did it! That was the only lifestyle I knew for a long time. I was gangbanging, selling drugs to family members, and doing anything to make sure I left my mark on where I was from. When it came to God, I didn’t want nothing to do with Him. I hated Him! Why would I put faith in a Man that I thought set me up for failure from day one? The only positive thing I had going in my life was football. To be honest, that was the only reason why I was going to school. I knew I could make money in the streets. I knew I did not want to be broke no more. I was going to do anything at all cost to make it out. I thought football was the way. So, I worked the hardest I could to get a scholarship on the field and off the field. I worked as hard as I could to get as rich as possible.
Going towards the end of my Senior Year I received a scholarship to play ball at a small college, and once again, God had a different plan! I got hit by a car crossing the highway and broke my ankle and dislocated my hip. I was on crutches for six weeks, and the doctor told me I had to do rehab for three months to play football again. The small college did not want to take the time to work with me, so they pulled my scholarship. I became depressed and fully submerged in the streets. I applied to WKU as a plan Z. This was the only school I got into without an athletic scholarship. Praise God for the 93% accept rating! So, that fall I decided to attend WKU and begin my journey on the Hill! I would have never imagined what God had in store for me under these cherry trees.
I moved into Douglas Keen Hall room 310 in early August of 2017 to attend Master Plan. This is where my walk with Christ began. Not even two weeks later I met some of my closest friends on that floor, friends that would later help guide me to Jesus! Around that time people was making a big deal out of the whole solar eclipse thing. I didn’t care. I was just happy I had a bed. But anyways, HFC was throwing a party for it, and I was invited to go! I didn’t have anything else to do, so I went. So, I got on this bus filled with strangers I didn’t even know, going to a corn field, and thought to myself this is how scary movies start. White people in a corn field! Yup, this is the way I am going out. I was wrong. In the middle of that cornfield began some of the most amazing friendships in my life, and it began my journey with the most amazing campus ministry I have ever been a part of.
That Sunday they convinced me to go to church. It was one the most eye-opening experiences I have ever had. Have you ever feeling where it feels like the pastor is talking to only you, and God is really pulling on your heart to do something? That was me that day! I finally realized that God created me in His Imagine, and there is no battle I cannot win with Him on my side! I became consumed in the ideal of learning more about Jesus, and on September 13th, 2017 a kid from a broken home, who committed every sin in the book, and didn’t want nothing to do with Jesus was baptized into a family of believers, who was driven on nothing but love! It’s crazy how God works sometimes. In the past three years of following Jesus, I have been able to accomplish so much. I have traveled the world, been on mission trips, and left the mark I wanted to on my community! The right mark, the mark of Jesus!
My challenge for you this week is to leave your mark, wherever you are or who you ever you’re with! Leave your mark on that person. You never know what that person is going through or has been through. So, just a simple smile or a conversation can change the world. It did for me!
Blessings.
Trevor B. Polston, from Louisville, Kentucky, is a junior at WKU, and he is majoring in religious studies.