Backsliding: Tim's Story

Every man has a weakness, but not everyman knows what that weakness is until it is too late. The story I'm about to tell is something I'm not entirely proud of.

My name is Tim. I'm a 22-year-old college student at California State University. I'm almost at the end of my senior year studying to be an engineer. I'm also a Christian. A very devout one too. Well, at least I was one. I was the kind of Christian that went to church every Sunday, went to Bible studies, and basically followed what God wanted out of me. I had tremendous faith. Looking back now it seems that I was never truly tested before. I come from a quality Christian family who were the opposite of dysfunction. My parents were well off and everything seemed to go my way. My friends were fellow believers and we had good clean fun growing up. We weren't perfect, but we tried to live as close as possible to the ideal life that God wanted for us.

I moved away to CSU after high school. I was pumped for the new life and opportunities that God had in store for me. I moved into the dorms my freshman year and made a ton of friends. Some were believers some were not. I made sure that people knew where I stood on issues of drugs, alcohol and sex. People respected me for my convictions and many looked up to me. I joined a Christian group on campus called Crusade on Campus (CC). This group consisted of most of my friends at the time. We did everything together is safe environment free of most temptations college students go through everyday.

It was at Crusade on Campus that I started dating a nice Christian girl named Lindsey. She was extremely sweet and very cute as well. We dated for about a year and we didn't do anything more than the occasional kiss to holding hands. We were very much in love or so I thought. At the middle of my sophomore year I learned that Lindsey had been cheating on me. I was crushed. Not only did she betray me, but also she did it with a non-believer. After we broke up, Lindsey didn't show up to meetings as much and hardly to church anymore. She was with her new boyfriend who many in CC thought was also the boy that she was sleeping with. Lindsey stopped going altogether at the end of the semester. We as a group of believers prayed for her. We prayed that she would see the light and the error of her ways. We prayed that she would halt her backsliding ways.