I turned twenty-three, and my life was basically over.
Three months before, I’d experienced a series of… unfortunate events. First, I was asked to move out of my family house and into my grandparent's house to help take care of them. Then, a little over a month later, my grandpa died. Then, I lost all three of the part-time jobs I was working, my health went on the fritz, and to wrap it all up with a shiny red bow, my dog died… on my birthday.
What a way to start off “twenty-three,” right?
I felt so alone in that time. Like everything I’d worked to obtain was just gone. Anybody that I tried to talk to seemed to make my grief worse instead of better—especially my mentor, at the time, who asked what I’d done to piss God off. As far as I could tell, I hadn’t done anything wrong. I was a good daughter. I volunteered in church. I prayed and read my bible practically every day. Why would God allow this to happen to me?
I remember silently crying on the couch in my living room, nobody else in the house.
I laid back on the couch, closed my eyes, and asked God to change my life—but if this was the life I was supposed to live, to help me be content with it.
One week later, I attended the online Story Embers writing summit, which was sponsored by The Company, a vocational writing school. I felt that slight tug at my heart when I saw their video. That weight that comes when God wants you to do something you don’t particularly want to do. I looked into the school and decided to submit an application. In the worst-case scenario, God wasn’t leading me there, and I’d get rejected, right?
A week later, I was accepted into the school. I moved from Las Vegas, NV, to Zanesville, OH, three months later.
God heard that single, desperate prayer and radically changed my life. It wasn’t that I’d done anything “wrong” and needed to be punished. God wasn’t causing those awful things that happened to me.
We have an enemy who seeks to destroy us. But God sees. He’s there. God is a very present help in times of trouble. God often meets you when you come to the end of yourself. That’s when He truly starts to show you His love.
Has my life been all cupcakes and rainbows since then? Absolutely not. Some of the hardest things I’ve had to face, I’ve encountered here at The Company. But I’m not alone. I’ve got a mentor who genuinely cares for me now. I’ve got friends who encourage and uplift me but, more importantly, are there to push and convict me.
But it all started with that single, quiet prayer.
If you take away just one thing from my story, take this. Pray radically. Believe He can step in. God loves you too much to leave you in that hole you’re in.
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Alli Prince is a young adult Christian author determined to change Christian Fiction’s reputation one book at a time. When she's not fighting with her characters, you can head to her website, where she helps authors fight off their inner-critic! Alli is from Las Vegas, Nevada, but currently lives in Cambridge, Ohio where she is a second-year apprentice at The Company. Learn more about her at AlliPrince.com
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