Blake Henderson

So I grew up in a Christian household, my dad was the youth pastor and mom was involved with the church and I went to Sunday school and to truth seekers (our Wednesday night “awana”) and elementary school just flew by and I was doing good for the most part. Then I got my first “phone” in I think 4th or 5th grade… I couldn’t call or anything with but I found out about pornography and fell into an addiction, soon after my parents found out and took away my phone for almost a year. I eventually got another phone and I stayed away from pornography but throughout most of middle school I struggled with lust, and I was too embarrassed to share with anyone. I was pretty successful in sports so I really started to idolize sports and put all my focus into that. Then I got to high school and shared about my struggles with some of my friends which helped, but certainly didn’t fix this issue and now addiction. At this point it’s probably the farthest I’ve felt from God, I started to almost feel depressed and really tried to fit in with my peers. And it got to the point where one of the girls in my grade said “Blake didn’t you used to be the kid who always was about church and stuff and now you’re making all sorts of inappropriate jokes and are kind of crazy now” and she doesn’t know it, but this has stuck with me since then. And it made me realize how far away from God I am and I needed to change something, but I didn’t know what. So I started a 2 year long Bible reading plan…except I started this for the wrong purpose, I started so I could tell everyone that I had read the entire Bible, (for my own glory). So I was reading the Bible daily staying on track with my reading plan and I found out that through playing sports I had a stress fracture in my back. Since I played through the pain for too long, this would never be able to fully heal and it made me realize that there is more to life than sports. So at this point I have all these things going on in my life while still trying to play sports in the summer. This was a stressful time and made me just confused and almost scared. I did change my mind to change the Bible reading plan to 1 year and read a lot everyday, but this was still for my own glory and I was reading for the wrong purpose. With my back injury it required me to take an 8-12 week break of all activity so I had no clue what I was going to do. I decided that I should go to this FCA leadership camp July 30- August 2. This was a game changer for me, it talked about Gods glory and doing stuff for his glory and not my own, it also talked about being disciples for God and this is what I needed. My 8-12 weeks of rest started right after this weekend of camp was over, and God knew this would happen and made me come back to him through this whole experience. I started to read the Bible for the right reasons and I just got baptized! I still have my continued struggles with lust, but me and some friends I met at the FCA camp are all struggling and now keeping each other accountable and praying for each other often. This verse that was the main verse at the camp has really helped me and give God the glory. It is from 2 Corinthians 18: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,[are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”