Everyone has their story.

As submitted to the Liberty Champion...


Everyone has their story.

This is a truth I thought I had really grasped a while ago. In high school I had the privilege of being a part of a youth ministry that welcomed people who had been blessed enough to have grown up in a loving Christian home as well as teens who had been through any number of difficulties: struggles with homosexuality, pregnancy out of wedlock, drug abuse, sexual abuse, running away, etc. I’ve always been thankful that God saw fit for me to have seen a lot at a young age. When I was 8, my parents sat my 10-year-old sister and me down and told us that a man we knew well had made some poor choices and that he was dying of AIDS. 4 years later before I had even made it to middle school the disease had taken his life. When I was 15, a girl in my youth group that was only 12, called me crying because a boy down the street had just convinced her to lose her virginity. When I was 17 I prayed with a girl who had been molested for years by her father —a man who happened to be in the ministry. I think that these relationships gave me enough insight to know that I was immensely blessed for having never experienced these things myself. For some reason God let me see these wounds in others, without having to go through the pain and scarring these experiences leave on their victims.

Here at Liberty, it is easy for us to put our peers in categories. “Oh he went to public school.” “She’s from one of those legalistic churches.” “He didn’t get saved until he was 19—he probably partied like crazy.”
Many times people who have seen less, or who consider themselves to be ‘conservative,’ or ‘deeply spiritual,’ or who are avid loyalists to the ‘Liberty Way,’ take a “stand” by making sure they are disassociated with people who may appear to have different values than them. These people who are deeply committed to Christ-honoring behavior are generally well-respected on campus, and for good reason. I have no doubt that the Lord smiles on those who take delight in His commandments. But he also takes delight in those who are actively loving the broken—which is also commanded. There are people every where on this campus who have been through painful, scarring experiences. Some of them have been victims who had no choice. Others are simply victims of making bad choices. Either way, these people should not be placed in the category of “rebellious,” “trouble makers,” or “anti-authority.” People begin to act out the titles put on them. If someone is constantly referred to as disrespectful, or disappointing, soon he or she will begin to act the part and believe there is no opportunity for change.

These are precisely the people who need those of us who have been spared from things like abuse and addiction to pray for them, love them, and help carry their burdens. Just as Romans 12:15 tells us, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.”
We, the blessed young people who have been spared from abuse and painful experiences, must remember that we were born with a sin nature as well and would be just as capable of having made wrong choices had we gone through the experiences others had gone through. For clarification, I am not saying that any one has the right to blame poor choices on being a victim. I am simply saying that those who have not made poor choices should invest not only in people who have grown up under similar circumstances to their own, but also those who have a rocky history.
Everyone is a culmination of their past experiences and the transformation that Jesus is completing in their lives. Everyone has their story.