When God’s Word guided me

After moving from Ontario to Calgary, I came to the church while looking for schools for my children. All three of them attended Christian schools at different times, but honestly, we didn't really understand the Bible at all.

I used to not believe. I used to think God was superstition.

I grew up hearing Bible stories, but they felt like fairy tales to me, not real. It wasn't until I joined the RCIA program at Ascension Catholic Parish that those "fairy tale" scriptures suddenly became real. Two thousand years of wisdom had been walking beside me all along, teaching, guiding, and leading me.

Yet where human limits end, God's beginning starts.

Through what we Christians call "God's plan," I was simply fortunate to have God's arrangement bring me to a genuine opportunity to draw closer to Him. I believe everything is in His hands.

After my baptism, I still often feel unworthy, unable to follow Christ's teachings fully. There is so much wisdom in the scriptures that I still cannot live up to, but I learned one thing: if you don't understand, it's okay. Just obey first.

One evening, during evening prayer, I was deeply lost. I didn't know if what I was doing was right. I wanted to help a loved one who had left me and betrayed me, but I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do, whether I would be hurt in the process, whether I could calmly and properly comfort someone who had betrayed me. I didn't know what to do.

In the middle of my prayer, I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to read the Bible. It really wasn't an ordinary thought. There was a sense of urgency. I didn't refuse it, but I also didn't know which passage to read. I wasn't familiar with the Bible, didn't know the context, didn't recognize any of the characters. But I felt a prompting: just open to a random page, and I would know.

I opened to a page at random and read:

"Go in peace. The mission you are on is under the eye of the LORD." (Judges 18:6).

I was stunned.

I had been lost because I didn't know if it was right to help someone who had betrayed me with no sign of remorse. I admit I was still anxious, but this verse made me think deeply for a long time. The very first part of it told me: Go in peace.

When I felt unseen, when I felt unnoticed, He was watching. He knew. He affirmed me.

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Article & photos by West Wong, baptized at Easter Vigil, Ascension Catholic Parish.