Oliver Gariepy

Coming to the Truth: Christ is King.

I was born into a family who really had no care for God. Not that they thought Christ wasn’t real, but that they had seen such a misrepresentation of what it means to be Christian they didn’t bring up the topic or really care for it. I had relatives who would go to church and have pictures of baby Jesus and I often wondered what it really was or meant. I knew I had been “baptized” as a kid, but no recollection of what that meant. I had no care for God or how true and life changing he was.
At about 7 years old I was sadly introduced to graphic content and that played an effect on me mentally. I remember going on the next few years with no care in the world. Then, it was at about 10 years old I started getting addicted to lust. This would go on to affect me in a lot of ways. I said things like “God isn’t real,” or “God I hate you,” which itself shows the contradiction of how I knew deep down he was very much real, I just couldn’t admit it because I loathed my own self thought righteousness. I swore and acted like someone I wasn’t because I hated what I was and the addiction I was going through. I know some of you remember me as a mean kid or always cocky, but there was a deeper situation going on; the only things I thought I could have were social status and sports. In my mind I didn’t deserve love or anything but reputation because I thought I was some sort of “monster” because of addiction.
It was about my freshman year I started to get to understand what Christ was. With things like social media and podcasts I could kind of learn about him. I started hanging out with more christian friends and praying before competitions. Yet, that was out of my own righteousness. I knew deep down that I was doing it to “Get even” with God. If my addiction took place one day, the next day I would pray and I would be all good. I was taking advantage of Christ's forgiveness; which is exactly what Paul warns us about in Galatians 5:13. This went on for a bit until about the start of my Sophomore year. Then my sophomore year I really did want to quit my addiction and I had started actually reading God's word, but I was still stuck. I often remember me trying and trying to become better and I failed and failed. I prayed “God get me out of this flesh,” or “God I can’t stop this, God I can’t quit, God kill my flesh, God kill me to stop this addiction,” I cried many tears because I knew so badly I wanted to be with God, but I didn’t rely on him enough to stop my addiction.
Then it was January of 2025 and I was actually way better, but I had not really committed fully to God. Along one of those weeks I prayed “Jesus, I believe you to be my savior, help me from what I was.” It wasn’t this single moment that clicked in my life, but it was the discipline that went from there on. I was relentless about reading scripture, praying, and being among his people, yet I was still a little embarrassed. How could I, this guy who was terrible his whole life, be a disciple? Well, I found out God has a history of making ordinary people do amazing things.
From there I joined FCA, went to church, nurtured people with the word of God, found myself through Christ even more, and faced the fact that yes, I faced addiction for 5.5 years of my life. And yes it was the hardest thing to get out of, but Christ walked with me the whole way and he was always ready for me to turn back when I strayed from him. I want to conclude that I know I don’t have everything figured out and I know that I still struggle with sin and I’m guilty of a lot. But, sin doesn’t own me and nor does it have to own you. So, if you’re on the fence about Christ and maybe think you’re too far gone know this: I thought the same thing for almost my whole life and I didn’t feel free and truly fulfilled until I gave my life to him.