Christian Life Essay Research Paper Padovano

Christian Life Essay, Research Paper

Padovano’s Definations of Religious Experience

It wasn’t a specific day or date that I can remember, but more or less a time period that I spent a majority of my time “thinking my life out”. It was during my freshman year of college, I was going through a major transition. Moving away from home, not just to school, but across the entire country from Virginia to California. I was facing the reality that actions I took then could drastically impact the rest of my life. I spent a lot of time trying to picture my future, trying to figure out what was going to happen to me in the future. Where was I going to be. What was I going to be doing. Was I going to end up marrying my boyfriend, Matt. Would I be happy. Was I going to be a Mother. Would I be successful. I wanted to know it all. I tried to evaluate everything, like my reasons for coming out to USF, was ROTC right for me, could I do it. There were weeks when I questioned everything I did. I rethought all aspects of every dimension of my life. I contemplated each of my decisions that could possible determine things in my life’s path. I was looking for the meaning for everything I did everything, I chose and the reason why God had put me where I was. I got very agitated with myself and frustrated because deep down I knew that God was in charge of what was to happen to me. I knew that He would take care of me, and He would put me where He wanted me to be. In all honesty, I believe this was when I realized that it was time to allow God to take over, no more of this “questioning” my destiny or meaning of my life. I allowed God to take over, completely and I handed him back his job- my future and my life. I would have to say that at this same time I was also going through a stage of unpredictability and incomprehension of my life and the future that I would live. I wanted to know exactly what was going to happen to me within the next few years, I wanted to know where I would be and with whom, doing what, etc. I needed to not only realize that God was inevitably in charge of my life, but also that life was intended to be a mystery and we were not supposed to know everything.

There was a long period of time during my senior year of high school when each morning I awoke to the question of “What will today be like. Who will I talk to, who will I sit next to, who will I associate with.” This was a particularly difficult time for me. For years I had the same close group of friends, but after our junior year a lot of things changed. They all became very involved with smoking weed, drinking alcohol and partying a lot. They even skipped class and left school on a daily basis. To me, this was unacceptable and I knew that it was not part of my character. Instead of going along with the crowd, I risked my friendship with all of them. It was hard at first, to realize that I now had no real “close” friends. Granted, I did have friends, but they were more or less acquaintances, they weren’t the friends I had hung out with on a daily basis for years. I felt very alone, and it really bothered me. I got depressed easily and on a daily basis. Often I would sit in my classes and wonder why I had become such a loser. Deep down I knew that I really wasn’t a loser that I was infact very strong for staying true to myself. I felt very out of place almost all the time. I didn’t go to the cafeteria for lunch because I didn’t fit in at any of the lunch tables. Instead I would go to the senior lounge and work on my homework or write letters to my cousin. I dreaded doing the traditional senior things, like the senior class picture or senior skip day, even prom. They meant feeling very out of place. At the senior class picture I ended up sitting with acquaintances, for senior skip day I just hung out at home and rested. For prom however, things were a bit different. By then I had found a really good group of friends and I really enjoyed myself. Prom night was one of the best memories I have of high school, I had a wonderful night, I was very happy. I was so glad to have been able to hang out with a group of people who had the same values and beliefs as I did. As it turns out, these are the friends I hang out with when I come home from college, and oddly enough I feel like I have known them my whole life, they know me better than any of my other friends ever did and they are just like me.

I am the Queen of Commitment. I have commitments in every possible aspect of my life. To myself, I have commitments to always pursue success, to pursue my own happiness, to maintain my health, as well as always trying to do my best. I have commitments to my friends, to always be there for them, to enjoy life with them as well as help them through the hard times that come their way. I have commitments to my family to be a caring, loving and kind daughter, sister, granddaughter, cousin and niece. I have a commitment to my boyfriend, Matt to be there for him always, as well as to be faithful to him. I have a commitment to my nursing to be attentive, understanding and caring to my patients, to be as knowledgeable as possible in my field as well as being communicative to the patients, their families, the doctors and the other nurses. I have a commitment to the United States Army to defend and protect this country as a solider and to care for and attend to wounded and sick soldiers and their families as an Army Nurse. I have a c