"As she listened to the story she noticed that" (S22)
As she listened to the story she noticed that some of her frustration, anxiety, and worry had started to fade away. These last couple weeks had been stressful, with completing her college finals and trying to start the job search for after school-keeping up with friends, families, and general correspondence had gotten to be too much. Whenever Jesse opened her phone and saw "32 unread messages" she panicked and avoided replying to them and thus the cycle continued. She could not find a way to get rid of the harassed feeling that had been plaguing her and had multiple panic attacks the last few weeks.
But as Jesse listened to this woman speaking about how she had found God and fully gave herself to him, resulting in a new found purpose and having someone to go to her with troubles, she felt an urge to do the same herself. Jesse had never been raised with any faith. Sure she had heard of different religions, God, and spirituality, but that had never been something she had felt she needed hin her life. After finishing the video, Jesse sat and reflected on why she had thought this way and realized it was simply because most of the people around her had thought that way and she had gone along with it. That video had created a sense of peace in Jesse and she resolved that she did not want to lose that feeling.
The next week she went to a nearby church and sat and listened to the sermon. As Jesse looked around, she noticed how engaged everyone was in what was being said and how open they were to those around them- they all had one thing in common: everyone there believed in something greater than themselves. As the woman in the video said, living life without God, is living life only thinking about oneself and the day-to-day struggles; with belief in God, comes the desire to serve one another and the inner joy that brings. As the weeks passed by and Jesse continued to attend church, she realized she had always felt stuck because she was always focused on herself and had to be in control of every little thing. Now, though, when she turned to God with these troubles, she was putting her trust in Him to have control, and her anxiety immediately lessened.
After a year of listening, learning, and shedding her old ways, Jesse was baptized and became a Christian. Her newfound faith, guided her to a career in counseling, where she worked to help others cope with panic attacks, depression, and anxiety from a Christian worldview.
