Ashley Collins spent 20 years as a high priestess. She had grown up in Nevada with an abusive father, and as a teenager she turned to paganism, looking for power and meaning. She built a life and even a writing career around it. Addiction and a spell in prison were part of the story too. Nothing filled the hole inside her.
She moved to London to study, and there her questions came to a head. She started reading and listening to Christians talk about Jesus. Something was pulling at her. She walked into St Mary's in Tottenham.
During worship, God's Presence became real to her. "It felt like all the pain and darkness inside me was being pushed out to make room for the Holy Spirit," she said. She had spent two decades reaching for the supernatural. Now the living God was reaching for her.
She went home and cleared out every pagan object she owned. She brought the past into the light and found it forgiven. The anger that had followed her for years lifted. "Nothing filled it until Jesus," she said. "I'm not angry anymore."
Ashley had carried the question so many people ask quietly. "If God loves me, why is this horrible thing happening in my life?" The answer she found was not an argument. It was a Person, who would not abandon her, and who made room in her for something she had never had. Peace.
