At the Perfect Time
The last year of Ellen’s life presented her with challenges she never thought she’d have to face. After moving back to Dallas during the pandemic, she was feeling lost about her purpose and was questioning her faith. While moving back home, she started to feel a tremendous amount of pain in her back that the urgent care quickly diagnosed as sepsis due to an unexplained extreme kidney infection. She was immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment, finding out later that the infection would have been fatal if she had gotten treatment even 30 minutes later than she had.
The proper care helped her recover from the incident, but she was still struggling with her faith. She felt angry that God would allow her to go through all the pain and fear she experienced regarding her health. She shares, “I was so angry and decided to do whatever I wanted. I thought it was my life, and I didn’t care to have faith in it.”
Nearing her graduation from SMU, Ellen had fully stepped away from her faith, but she started to notice that all her Christian friends seemed so bright and happy. When she asked them what made them so different from her other friends, each one of them gave credit to their relationship with God. Their response was unexpected to her, sharing “Growing up Catholic, it’s all about the formula and felt so rigid to me. It never felt like I was building a relationship.”
Ellen soon started to reopen her heart to Christianity and made plans to attend a church she passed every day on her way to college – HP Pres. Arriving on Palm Sunday 2024, she felt as if the sermon was speaking directly to her and remembers being welcomed instantly by the volunteers, staff, and church members. She reflects, “I felt like all of these people really wanted me here and wanted me to know God like they do.”
In the months following her first visit, she continued to get more involved in the church as she explored her faith in ways she never had. However, when summer came, she experienced another wave of health issues, was laid off from her job, and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She found herself questioning her faith and feeling angry with God again. But this time was different because she was surrounded by her church community. People prayed with her, checked in on her, and offered help when they could. Ellen shares, “I’ve never experienced a community that actually cares like this one does.”
Looking back now, she understands that God brought her to church at just the right time. She shares, “I had no idea I was walking into the hardest year of my life, but I just feel so loved through everything I’ve been through. I’ve never felt like this in my life.”
Even in the darkest times, we are not alone. God is with us, and he never left.
