Although I come from an atheist family, God is using me in unique ways. I typically cannot get the words God, Jesus, or Christ in a sentence let alone actually conversing about God. This summer has been interesting. Through God’s doing I have had many good conversations with family and I have been able to grow personally in order to show what it means to be a Christian. I have a cousin that suffered from a severe accident over 20 years ago. She recovered completely from the accident, but was initially in a coma and lost some of her memory. She has opened up and told me about how that accident is what keeps her faithful to God. She never mentioned this to me before, it took time in the conversation for her to become this vulnerable. She decided to share this because I had shared many stories of my journey with Sojourn, as sojourn played a major role in my college life.
I have also had the opportunity to witness another cousin struggle with her gender identity. This is not very unique in today’s day and age, but with pride month just occurring there has been a lot of criticism on the Christian community. I have actually been very self-conscious that my cousin thinks of me as a stereotypical Christian. One of the most important things I learned from Sojourn was to treat everyone with love and kindness, regardless of who they are. I would never not love my cousin, but what she is going through is tough for me to wrap my head around. I want to ask many questions just to understand, but I know that isn’t the best thing to do to someone in that situation. Sojourn has equipped me to be able to love this cousin without feeling the need to completely understand the situation. God is using me as a support system for my family. Although I would love to see Him bring my family to Christ, these baby steps are exposing my family to what it means to be Christian.