If you exist, then change my life

I wasn’t raised in the Christian spirit, and I had no desire to listen to my teachers, or even my caregivers. I learned to cheat on my grades as early as first grade.

Of course, like most teenagers, my parents tried to influence me, but the street ultimately prevailed. The street taught me how to pick pockets and do other “interesting things”.

Gradually, as I grew older, so did my negative desires. From the age of fifteen, I sought my place in any way I could: cigarettes, booze, drugs, and a lot of other trash that ruined my life.

It so happened that when I was twenty, I started selling drugs, and every time I had this dirty money, unpleasant things happened to me. I’d buy a defective TV, someone would steal my money when I wanted to buy things at the market, and then one night, someone ran over me with a gun. It was then that I began to wonder if there was Someone above, who sees everything and rewards each person according to their merits. As I’ve already said, I didn’t like reading or studying, and after all these experiences, I began reading classics and other literature, which wasn’t my natural affinity. It was as if Someone began inspiring me to seek God. One day, I visited a friend who was a great authority to me and saw a Bible on his desk. I was very surprised. I asked him, “Why would such a wise man need this book?” He replied, “All the classics of cinema, theater, and literature have their origins in the Bible.”

I realized that all I was seeking was God, because only God can give everything that beautifies and gives meaning. One autumn evening in 1995, I knelt and addressed God. These were the simple words: “If You exist, then change my life for the better!” From that day on, my life truly began to change for the better. Now I better understand the words of Fyodor Dostoevsky, who said that the solution to all of humanity’s problems lies in Jesus. My attitude toward the world around me has changed. I work as a children’s hairdresser, lead a home group, and try to make this world a brighter place by my personal example.