Is God Unnecessary?
By Tom (Monash Uni)
My name is Tom. I'm 23 and I'm a Christian.
That wasn't always the case - although I did go to Sunday school until I was 10. So I knew all the stories. In high school Jesus was an unnecessary and unattractive addition that some people had to their lives.
Unnecessary in that I didn't need him. You see, if you're a recovering alcoholic you need God for a reason to quit. If you're a repentant murderer you need God to stop feeling guilty. Or if you're a quiet kid who doesn't have many friends, you need God for someone to talk to or to like you. I wasn't an alcoholic, I hadn't killed anyone and I had friends: God was unnecessary.
He was unattractive because he wasn't important for my family or for my friends or anyone I really respected. Seeing as he was unnecessary, I couldn't see any reason to go it alone as a Christian.
When I was in year 12, things changed. My dad, who I very much respect, joined an Alpha course to learn more about Jesus. After that, he started to take the whole thing a bit seriously. This didn't fit with the theory - my dad wasn't an alcoholic, or a criminal, or lonely - in fact, he was a lot like me. To be honest, part of the reason I checked out Christianity was to see if my dad had joined a cult.
In 2001 I travelled from my country town to Monash Uni, Melbourne. I sought out a Christian club there called 'Student Life' and a guy named Jake taught me about what the Bible said about God, me and life. It teaches of a God who created people specifically for the purpose of having a uniquely intimate friendship with him. The 'sin' I had always heard about was essentially a rejection of God himself and the reason this friendship was currently so distant. And the death on the cross that we've all heard about - that was God's solution: satisfying his anger at evil and giving us the chance to return to him. It's surprising how new this was to a seasoned Sunday school kid.
I had a choice to make during the mid-year break: Student Life's Christian conference, or booze-fuelled celebration of Uni games. And since, whoever you asked, Uni games looked to be far more fun and I could always repent at my death bed should this be the wrong choice - I chose Uni games. And it was just as I planned it to be: great footy, massive nights out, good friends, better girls, cheap drinks, no sleep - by the time I caught the train home I thought it was the best choice I'd ever made. As I sat on the train and thought about the week that was, I waited for the sense of joy and satisfaction to flow over me.
But it never came.
Actually, I felt dirty. Not just dirty, but ashamed. And empty. And as if that wasn't enough, I was terrified. Terrified that this feeling would never go away. You see, one of the drawbacks of being created for a relationship with God, is that you can never be satisfied by anything else. Alcohol, sport, sex, parties and the rest are things we try as substitutes but they never cut it. Sitting alone of the train on the way back to Melbourne, I knew this to be true.
I prayed then. Nothing too cohesive at all, but just that I was sorry. He was right, I was wrong. I asked God to forgive me and thanked him for taking me back. Nothing magical happened (in the lightning bolt sense) but from that day on I was a child of God and a citizen of heaven.
So that was about 4 years ago and a lot has changed. Mostly being a Christian makes it so much easier to be yourself and God's Spirit enables me to change a lot of the things I don't like about myself. He allowed me to become far less self-centred in my relationships, I'm not anxious about the future and I don't worry so much about what people think about me. Best of all I have a place in heaven that I cannot lose, and that's worth anything I have to give up.
Want to discover the forgiveness and freedom that Tom found in Jesus? Read "Getting Connected".
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