Lost in Darkness and Witchcraft
Two years before that April morning, I was lost in darkness. I wrote letters about killing my parents. I dabbled in witchcraft and the occult. I listened to music filled with death. My parents found my letters and were terrified—but they didn't give up on me.
God Transforms a Rebellious Teen
They pulled me out of my school, cut off my destructive friendships, and surrounded me with Christians who loved me. At first I resisted. But at a church youth retreat, something happened. The speaker talked about God's love, and for the first time, I felt it. I felt hope. I gave my life to Jesus that weekend, and everything changed.
Living Out My Faith
My friends from before thought I'd lost my mind. But I had found my life. I carried my Bible everywhere. I volunteered at church. I wrote poems about faith and struggles and hope. In one I wrote: "Now I have given up on everything else—I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ."
The Ultimate Test of Faith
On April 20, 1999, I went to school at Columbine High, in Littleton, Colorado. I was seventeen.
When the gunmen entered the library where I was studying, I hid under a table, praying. One of them came to me.
According to eyewitness accounts, he asked, "Do you believe in God?"
I knew what my answer would cost. But I had been rescued from darkness by the God who loved me. How could I deny Him now?
"Yes," I said. "I believe in God."
He asked why.
"Because I believe," I replied.
Those were my last words before he fired.
I was not a hero. I was just a girl who had found something worth dying for—because it was worth living for. Jesus saved me long before that day. On April 20th, He brought me home.
