How Adam found grace

Adam’s Bible has a page torn out because he used it to wrap up a joint. In high school, he smoked a lot of marijuana, made fun of fellow students, skipped class, and looked at porn. But after he tried ecstasy, he knew something had to change. He was tired of his life and wanted to be a better person. The trouble was, he didn’t really know how, even though he worked hard at it.

Subsequently, Adam looked for a college which had a campus ministry presence. He met CCO staffer Greg Sovereign at a prospective student event at Arcadia University and decided to attend that school.  As a first-year student, he did everything he possibly could with the Christian Fellowship: movie nights, large-group meetings, weekend retreats, service projects – anything. Adam finally found the community he was looking for.

“Greg and all the Christian kids I was hanging out with always talked about this thing called grace. I always thought it was stupid… I knew that you have to earn your love. You have to be man enough, strong enough, smart enough, subservient enough, and good enough.”

And then Adam attended the CCO’s student conference, Jubilee.

“A speaker asked us if we really liked what we believed in. The question smacked me across the face. Then he talked about that stupid grace thing: how we can be assured of our salvation because of our faith in Jesus Christ and His grace. A few days later, Greg and I discussed what the speaker said about grace. I was furious and terrified. In hindsight, I can see how our conversation was just the beginning of a long and painful journey of learning to truly trust in God, not the fake god I created in my head from the haunting memories and experiences of my past.”

Adam knows who he is, and he knows that God loves him. He now has a direction in his life— he wants to be a doctor who heals and serves people. He wants to be like Jesus.