When Things Just “Add Up”

So it was a little over 3 years ago that I transferred to the school I’m at today, the University of the Incarnate Word.  Before that, I went to a school in Pennsylvania for the first semester of my freshman year.  Coming out of high school and through the first semester I was an arrogant kid who thought he was the star soccer player of the world.  My success on the field carried into every aspect of my life, to where I thought I was invincible and nothing I did would come with any consequence.  Needless to say, I turned away from God. 

Well God broke me pretty hard, and humbled me like I deserved… and so badly needed.  (Although at the time I just kind of assumed it was bad luck.)  So when I came to UIW in the spring, I knew things had to change.  I kind of kept to myself, because I was scared to fall back into the things that made me so miserable for the past year.  Not even my own teammates knew much about me outside of the soccer field.  I wasn’t doing all the things that caused me so much trouble before, but I was still essentially a Christian only by name, and not by action.  But in fall of my sophomore year, the miracle happened… and it was a calculator.

One of my teammates asked me if his friend could borrow my calculator for a test she had that day, not knowing much about me other than I was an engineering major, so he assumed I had a good calculator.  (Little did I know how solid of a Christian she was…) The next Monday, when she returned the calculator, she randomly asked me if I had any interest in going to a college fellowship gathering that took place right across the street (at Trinity University).  And it was finally on that Tuesday night, for the first time in 2 years, I really opened my heart to God.  And wow, how awesome is God’s mercy?!

I continued to attend this weekly gathering, “The Well”, for a year until this same calculator girl decided it was time we started our own praise and worship service at UIW.  With the same church helping us out, she started “The Fire”.  Her starting this group has helped me in my walk more than I could have ever imagined.  I am now a student intern for The Fire and it is through the church that helps our group that I have been given this opportunity to serve in India!

How incredible is God that he can take something so basic like a calculator and it lead to something so brilliant… His love.