WELCOME

GROWING UP IN A CHURCHGOING FAMILY, CORBAN, A 19-YEAROLD YOUNG ADULT FROM MONTANA, NEVER IMAGINED HIS LIFE WOULD DRIFT SO FAR FROM FAITH — OR THAT GOD WOULD DRAW HIM BACK THROUGH UNEXPECTED FRIENDSHIPS AND GRACE.

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I grew up in an Adventist home, and we regularly went to church. I had the notion that since God loved me, I was saved regardless. After asthma forced me to quit football my freshman year, I had too much free time and didn’t know what to do with it. That summer, my friends and I decided to try some alcohol.

 

Since it was “fun,” we started partying more. By mid-junior year, things weren’t going too well. I had a growing conviction about my actions. Partying more and harder became my escape, and eventually I started smoking weed. I grew more unsettled and unhappy. My conscience really bothered me. I hated everything about the way I looked, talked, breathed — everything. I was not at all happy.

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[About that time], some friends from the Christian Faith Club at school invited me to a meeting. I wanted to find new friends and hoped things would be different. The kids I met there were good examples of what a Christian should be. At the next meeting, a guest speaker in his early 20s shared his conversion story. His history was so similar to mine, and that started to get me thinking. A little later, my best friend left the state for a week. Alone and unhappy, I began to rethink everything. . . .

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