My Story of Salvation

I was journaling again tonight, and I came across this question: What is your story of salvation? Here is what I wrote.

What is my story of salvation?
I grew up learning Christian  principles. I "asked Jesus into my heart" when I was about 7. It wasn't until my Junior year of high school that there seemed to be anything more than that.
That's when I sought community. I looked for accountability. I got real with God. I began studying His word in earnest.

After Cru Winter Conference in December 2012, I fasted for 24 hours for the first time in my life to pray and learn about living the spirit-filled life.

But I skipped a step. First, God had me apply to Stanford, Caltech, and the Flinn Scholarship, and get rejected by all of them. But by his grace, I was named a Flinn alternate and was ultimately named a scholar. The message to me was clear: this whole experience is nothing I earned or deserve on my own merit, but it is a gift from God, to be used for His glory.

I didn't plan it that way. If I were in charge, I wouldn't have played it that way. But thank God that He is in charge and not me, and that His plan turned out far better than anything I could imagine.

There's a lot more to this story, specifically about the last six months, but I will stop here for now and save that for another time, when the dust has had a bit more time to settle. However, I will take this opportunity to say that I was so blessed to spend three weeks in China with 21 wonderful people that I might otherwise not have known if it weren't for God's plan.