Gary Friesen

I’ll never forget it. Saturday, November 9th, 8:56 PM. That was when Jesus changed my life forever.

But before that, I want to tell you how I felt about Jesus before He changed my life. I grew up Catholic all my life, went to church, did the usual prayers, and lived life with God somewhat in my life. I’d rarely confess my sins, partly because I didn't care enough to learn how important and damaging it could be to my relationship with God. Nothing crazy happened during this time; I was just going through the motions.

But my faith started to evolve when I joined Catholic Christian Outreach group at Brock University and took my first faith study. It made me ask, does God really love me? How can I love God at a personal level too?

Then came the Brock CCO Fall Retreat in Gethsemani. The purpose of this retreat was to really give God a chance. It was an opportunity to give 100% of ourselves to a God who has already given His 100% to all of us. There we talked about how God is calling us to let go of our past selves and let God renew us with what He has planned for us. So when I made that affirmation to let God in, I felt Him start to move in me. After I wrote this in my own words, tears started to roll down my face. They weren’t tears of sorrow or despair, but tears of joy and peace, both of which I could’ve only received by the love of God. This is what I wrote on that day:

“God, if you really want to be in every part of my life, I let you in. Everything that I have and what makes me, me is yours! God, help me on your path. I need you.

I’ve never felt this amount of liberation and peace and love from Jesus ever before in my life. I could not believe it.

I’m not saying everyone will experience God’s love the way that I did, but it’s the sincere decision to go all in with God that, once you make it, you allow Jesus’ love to enter and wrap around you. God already loves you; everyone knows that, but more importantly, do we open our hearts to invite His whole love in? It’s saying yes to God and making that declaration of faith to feel the fullness of His love so that you too can come to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.