Thanksgiving Testimony
Zachary Murray
I grew up in a family in which my father is Jewish and I thought that my mother was nonreligious. I grew up with very little Christian exposure at all. My father was raised Jewish, but has no religious beliefs at all. My father’s side of the family lives here in Miami, so most of my religious exposure was of Judaism. I never even knew what it meant to be Jewish, but I still called myself a Jew.

My mother is an Alcoholic. I grew up most of my life not knowing why my mother was crying so much, or why she acted strange sometimes. My mother’s father was also an alcoholic. He would come home at nights drunk and would yell at her. My mother took on the disease of alcoholism from my grandfather. She eventually joined alcoholics anonymous and had stopped drinking, but I did not understand why.

I had a confused life. It did not really have a direction or meaning. I never really felt love. I would always say “I love you” to my mother and father, but something was missing from this love. Even though I would call myself Jewish, I was a strong believer in evolution. It was the only reason of life that was taught to me in school, so I thought it HAD to be true.

I never thought that if the only reason we are here is evolution, then there can be no such thing as true love. Love would then only mean compatibility with someone, or that I need someone to fulfill my needs. There would be no purpose to life. No reason to live it. No one actually cared about me or loved me. I was living my life feeling this way without even realizing it. No matter how happy I would seem to be or how happy I would feel, I would never feel truly happy. I always had a hole in my heart, and the hole would hurt a lot.

This hole would make me search constantly for a purpose in life. I turned to some eastern religions, such as Buddhism. But it made no sense to me and had no purpose in it. I was still without a purpose, and without true love and happiness.

I don’t remember why, but when I was 16, Philip Lin invited me to his Bible study. I don’t know why, but I agreed to go. When I went, it was something totally strange to me. Not because I have never seen so many Chinese people in the same place and the same time, but because the people were different. Seeing these kids together singing and worshiping was something new and different. I didn’t understand what they were doing, or why. But they had something I wanted, and I admired them. They were beautiful.

I kept coming back every once in a while for a year or so. I always wanted to learn more and spend more time with these beautiful and loving people. I was eventually lucky enough to go to Centrifuge during my senior summer year. That was the best experience of my life. I was surrounded by the most awesome people everyday. I was so touched that I cried every night. I accepted Christ and asked Him to forgive my sins on June 22. I was happier than I had ever been before. I was so happy that I cried so hard and I could barely even talk to ask Christ to forgive me. I had never been that happy before and filled with so much love. I was always so happy that I cried a lot, and I liked to cry.

When I told my mom I accepted Christ, I did not realize that she was also Christian. I had thought that she was sort of religious ever since she stopped drinking, but I did not know she had totally accepted God back into her life. In fact the reason she stopped drinking was because she accepted God into her life.

I accepted Christ about 4 or 5 months ago, but it has been the greatest few months of my life. I have grown a huge interest into learning about Christ and talking about him with other nonbelievers. I have decided to major in religious studies in college.

I have never felt as much love since I became a Christian. Not only from Christ, but also from all my new friends. And I love all of you, even if I have never spoken to you before.