Taste and See…

For most of my life, I thought breakthrough meant escaping my past. Today I know breakthrough is discovering who I am because of Jesus.

If you had told me a year ago that I would be writing here sharing my faith, I never would have believed you.

The truth is, I didn't grow up in church. One Sunday, I walked through these doors (at C*Road) for the very first time. I still can't fully explain why I came. At the time, I thought I was simply checking out a church. Looking back now, I can see God had been drawing me long before I realized I was looking for Him.

The message that morning was from 1 John, and it was called "God Is Light." I didn't know it then, but God was about to use that message to completely change the direction of my life. Our church has many pastors, and honestly, until I went back and rewatched that sermon while preparing for this story article, I didn't even remember who had preached it. What I remembered was the message. The message was about stepping into the light. It showed me that exposure leads to grace, grace is the beginning of healing, and that we aren't defined by how perfectly we obey. Through Jesus, we are adopted into the family of

God.

One sentence from that message has stayed with me:

"A person who truly encounters the love of God cannot remain unchanged by it."

For so much of my life, I had believed the opposite. My journey has included some very difficult seasons. As a teenager, I walked through addiction and homelessness. Later, I experienced trauma and the heartbreak of becoming a widow at just 22 years old. For a long time, I carried shame and believed the things I had been through and the mistakes I had made would always define me. But that morning I heard something I had never truly understood before.

Jesus already knew every part of my story...

...and He still wanted me.

I went home that day knowing I wanted to know more. I didn't even own a Bible, so I ordered one. When it arrived, I opened it with fresh eyes. I wasn't just reading words on a page—I was searching for Jesus. What started as curiosity quickly became hunger. The more I read, the more I realized God's love doesn't just forgive us—it gives us a new identity. That became my breakthrough. Not because all my struggles disappeared. They didn't. Not because my past suddenly vanished. It didn't.

My breakthrough was discovering that I am no longer defined by what happened to me or by the mistakes I've made:

I am a daughter of God.

Since then, I've been baptized, found a church family that welcomed me with open arms, and discovered a joy and purpose I never knew was possible. God has been teaching me that breakthrough isn't just one moment. It's choosing every day to walk in His light and allowing Him to transform me into the person He created me to be. I recently went back and watched that very first sermon again. It reminded me where this journey began. If you've never watched the message "God Is Light," I would encourage you to. Not because it was the sermon that changed my life, but because God used His Word through that message to begin changing my heart. I'll always be grateful for a church that faithfully teaches the truth, because one Sunday God used that faithfulness to reach someone who was searching and didn't even realize how much she needed Him.

Dear reader, if you're carrying shame, regret, or wondering if God could really use someone like you, I want to leave you with the same invitation I heard that first Sunday:

Step into the light.

There is grace there.

There is healing there.

There is a Father who loves you, who wants to adopt you into His family, and who offers you a brand-new identity in Christ.

If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be this: Don't wait as long as I did. The peace, forgiveness, and love I've found in Jesus are real. I can't change the years behind me, but I'm so grateful for the years ahead because now I know who walks with me. I'm standing here today because Jesus never stopped pursuing me. And if He can bring breakthrough into my life, He can bring breakthrough into yours.