my defining moment.

my defining moment. the turning point in my life. the climax of my story.

oct. 24 2010. approximately 7:30 am @ New Life Ranch.

we had just finished the sunday morning sunrise service at the outdoor chapel at fall retreat. i don't remember the exact service, i just remember the peacefulness of the morning & a single conversation. this conversation took place after the service, on the platform, with my youth pastor, mike laughlin. a simple conversation, that went something like this:
"mike, i feel like i haven't been living to my potential at church. by missing wednesday nights for dance, i think i'm missing out. is there anyway we could meet earlier, so i can catch up with the youth group?" -me
"that sounds like a great idea, let's do it." -mike.
so we did. and those meetings have continued for over a year now. this moment seemed slightly insignificant at the time, but looking back i realize that that was the moment that i stopped being a "christian" & i became a christian. no quotation marks. this was my first defining moment in my walk with christ.

i feel like have a couple of other defining moments since this initial one. the other major one took place on a wednesday night in sept. or oct. of this year @ okc first church of the nazarene. i don't know why, but a song that we sang that night hit me like a ton of bricks. banning played god of justice by tim hughes & the strangest thing happened. i got goosebumps. that's not the weird part though, the weird part is that the goosebumps didn't go away until like an hour later. that's not normal. so i payed extra close attention to the lyrics that we were singing & i felt god pushing me as i heard the words "we must go, live to feed the hungry, stand BESIDE the broken, we must go." i never thought that i would have a moment when i was sure of what god wants me to do, but thats what this was. after listening to that song on repeat for about a week straight & analyzing the lyrics to death, i thought about god's call on my life. this is a big moment and a big decision, so i've considered it almost daily. i know i still have time to figure out my life, but its cool to see that god will guide me along the way with these defining moments.
so that's my story, in a nutshell. i was 15 years old when i took the quotes off of my christianity, and i'm never looking back.

<3 Courtney (: