My friend and future roommate Josh and a bit of his testimony, which is just as refreshing and bold as he is in real life. His blog is here: http://quietinglove.blogspot.com/

Brief background: I was raised in a Christian household, said the sinner’s prayer, all that jazz.  But I never really knew God - Jesus Christ. I just knew what to say, and when to say it. I could totally intellectually tell you a decent amount about the bible and theology, yet not a piece of it mattered in my heart. This is why I disagree with people who say if you have theology the heart will come. Not so, at least for me.  The mind does not lead the heart, nor the heart lead the mind. Both must walk together with God.

Anyway, I struggled with numerous sins for most of middle and high school, many of which I don’t have the time or courage to get into. But one of them was drinking. I first really drank at the end of my sophomore year, but I didn’t really party much until second semester my senior year in high school. This rapidly spiraled into me getting absolutely blackout hammered every time I drank. Why? I have a lot of reasons why. I think it boiled down to numbness. I felt when I drank - a shallow, fake, temporal happiness, yes. But something. When I was sober I felt nothing. And that, frankly, scared the daylights out of me. I wanted to numb the fear I had, that inside I was nothing but evil. And who could I talk to? Whom could I be honest with, who wouldn’t judge me? There was no one.
Anyway, going to college and being on an athletic team does wonders for alcohol consumption. We routinely drank in the double digits, and the natural progression of the week (much in alignment with the school I’m at) was “work hard (weekday), run harder (saturday race), drink hardest (saturday night).” My drinking got worse and worse, and I had plenty of times where I should have gone to the hospital, but didn’t due to other circumstances.

Finally, this all caught up to me. After finding out I had my seventh stress fracture (oh joy) over the winter break, and after not drinking for 3 weeks, I was ready to rage by January’s month of pass/fail classes. First day back we had classes, but there was no party at the athletic house. “Whaaaat?” I thought. We had been promised many wild, fun, etc parties for the break, and how could we NOT have one as soon as we get back??? (I’m sure you’re getting the irony here). So anyway, the alcoholic freshman class (we were crazy…) had enough people with fakes to supply ourselves with alcohol, and when one of the track houses opened up Tuesday night for a “chill night” I rolled in with my handle of strawberry Smirnoff, ready to go. In the next two and a half hours I would drink just under half the handle (20 shots). Ironically, the last thing I remember was thinking “I’m doing a good job drinking: I’ll remember this!” I later would wake up in the hospital, finding out that I blew a .33 BAC. I cannot begin to describe the emotions and attitude that flooded my mind when I awoke. I cannot begin to tell you how quickly depression set in for me, and just how far I receded into the hollow darkness of my mind and heart.

But here, here is the beautiful thing. God made me. He knows me. He knew that, to get my attention, to break down the years and years of defenses and hard walls I’d put up to my friends, my family, and most importantly, to Him, He’d have to do something drastic. He killed my pride, my flesh, my confidence, and left me searching. Cause honestly, after that, I had nothing. How could one be prideful when you were that humbled? And slowly, through Him (via prayer, finding an amazing church, and awesome people) I was made whole. Through Him I began to understand Romans 8:6, that the death of my flesh (which I felt so strongly last year) would lead to new life. Through Him, I tasted true, powerful, freeing joy. I felt! My heart was free. At first it was just a hint, just a lingering taste in the deep wells of my heart after a day a church in February. It would grow in spirit and in truth, grow till I believed with all my heart and with all my soul and all my mind that Jesus, the Christ, is all that matters, and Him - the Son of God, one with God - died for me. The beauty of His sacrifice is slowly pushing out the sins of my life, and is breaking the chains of slavery to sin. I owe the Lord a debt I can never repay. Thanks be to God for His mercy!

In the lifeless stone of my heart, God broke ground and made life, as only He can do. :)
Now, the only response for me is to worship the Lord our God, and share the truth that will set you free (John 8:32). That is, that Jesus Christ, the loving Son of God, came down to earth in human form, lived a perfect life, took all the punishment we deserve (Romans 6:23) on himself, died on the cross, and rose again on the third day. He fulfilled much of the Hebrew prophecies of the Christ, and will fulfill the rest when He returns.

Now, if any of this doesn’t make sense, or you think I’m exaggerating, being over-emotional, being irrational, etc., let me say this: I am a scientist. I think logically - always have, always will. By the grace of God, I study in one of the best programs at one of the best universities in the country (that was all God that I got in, btw). All I’m saying is, I can think. And I join with the founders of science (Bacon, Kalvin, Pascal, Kepler, Galileo, Dalton, Newton, Maxwell, Planck, and may, may more) in a fervent belief in the living God. Science and logic are not at war with God - He made them. His creation shouts at the beauty and complexity of God (if you ask me, the beauty of evolution totally points to God’s incredible genius). If these men mentioned above fully believed in science and fully believed in the Christ, what is so logically wrong with Christianity? I think you’d be surprised by the logic of God.

So ask yourself - what is making you happy? And does it last forever?
I pray that God will show Himself to you, for only he lasts forever.
In the Name of the Most High God,
Amen.