A Cinderella Story

High school for me was a bit of a Cinderella story. Middle school was a nightmare. A tomboy. Silent. A brain. Braces on my teeth. A back brace to keep my spine straight. Carried a cello to and from school on the bus every day. My junior year in high school I got my braces off… all of them. I was elected Junior Class Representative. I became a cheerleader. The star running back from the football team asked me out. Cinderella, all the way.

Why would God choose that time to interrupt my life? Why would God choose that time to call me to faith? And yet that is exactly what happened. Now Mark and I remember this story differently. He insists he invited me to youth group. I insist that I asked him if I could come along. Though my life seemed to be going well, I was still not happy. My family was struggling. My friends had just started getting involved with drinking, drugs, and sex. I was looking for something better. And this group of students from Marin Covenant Church seemed to have it. The youth group had recently had something of a revival. Over 100 students from my high school attended each week. And they seemed happy. Truly happy. Mark was a leader in the youth group and the quarterback of the football team. So, one day I invited myself along.

That night at Youth Group they showed a multimedia presentation… God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. And I accepted Christ. It was that simple. The minute I heard the presentation I knew it was true. And that this was something I was going to give my life to. The leader asked us to bow our heads and raise our hands if we wanted to accept Christ. A leader would come find us after the presentation. You would think God would make something like this easy. But God’s timing was different than mine. No one approached me after the service. No one seemed to notice that I had tried to become a Christian.

Perhaps it was not the smartest move to arrive at youth group for the first time with a car load of football players. We walked into the gym. The guys walked one way. The girls avoided me like the plague. I was moving in on their territory. Youth group was miserable. Here I was trying to become a Christian and no one would talk to me. Except for Mark. Faithfully, every week, he invited me to youth group. “Pick you up at 7:00 pm?” he’d say. I knew it was a mistake to show up with these guys each week, but honestly, can you blame me for saying yes?

I must have raised my hand a dozen times over the next few months. And nothing. Seriously. Who has to fight this hard to get into the kingdom? And then, one day, someone from the youth group sat next to me at a meeting and invited me to a waterski retreat. About halfway through the retreat a youth volunteer noticed that I seemed to be interested in this faith stuff and asked if I had questions about Christianity. I burst out crying! How do I become a Christian? What was I doing wrong? What do I do now? What is a quiet time? For the next few years Patty took me under her wings and mentored me. She bought me a bible. She taught me how to do daily devotions. She recommended me for leadership in the youth group. She opened up her home to me. I am forever in her debt for laying the foundation of my faith.

Today, Mark and I are both pastors in the Evangelical Covenant Church. Mark’s brother, two other friends from San Rafael High, and several of the volunteer leaders are also ordained in the Covenant. High school was a Cinderella story for me, but it wasn’t the transformation any of us expected.