The Happy Atheist

By Michael Griego on July 14, 2023 • ( 0 )

This atheist always thought Christians were foolish, deluded, and even evil. One day she met a friend who talked about God in a way she’d never heard before. ◊

I heard a young atheist share her story. She was quite compelling in discussing her atheism and the influences around her. The story of her journey from atheism to Christianity is an eye-opener for Christians and atheists alike (and everyone in between).

The lesson to me is that, believe it or not, both sides are really not that far apart.

Atheist Origins
This young woman was not raised in a church environment. As she got older she determined that the atheist term or religious bracket was the best fit for her. There is no God, she reasoned. We live and we die and we get buried, and that’s it. That worked for her. She vowed to make each day “awesome” in the pursuit of full enjoyment in life. The problem is that this approach to life led to partying, drugs, boyfriends, and an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

There are many people who grow up in a church-attending environment and evolve into a similar lifestyle. They reject their Christian/Catholic upbringing as too many Do’s and Don’ts and not enough real relevance in their own lives or in those around them. They see Christian hypocrisy abounding in parents, priests, pastors, uncles, siblings, teachers, friends, and even themselves. They can’t wait to be free of it all and live a life that’s true to self, of course as a good person, trying to be happy and letting others live in freedom themselves.

Haters?
The world around us reinforces the drift from God and religion. Because, after all, as this young woman surmised, if God is so great, then how could there be starving children? Or violence between people? Or wars between nations? Or sickness, and meanness, and sadness?

No, God doesn’t exist. It’s Science that rules, and Christians are merely deluded people who believe in a fairytale, want to take rights away from others, and seek to install a new world order of their own making.

Like many atheists/secularists, she literally felt anger at Christians for their folly and did all she could to put them down and stop their efforts.

She almost hated them.

Friendship and Love
Then she met a friend, through other friends, who happened to be a solid Christian. She recalls her wearing a brightly colored shirt saying “Jesus is my homeboy.” She wondered if this was blasphemous! Her friend was kind and loving and actually fun to be around. They debated their faiths, or her lack of faith. And the young woman admitted she was pretty harsh, mean, and negative. But her friend stayed true to her and still loved her without rancor, spite or judgment.

Her friend did tell her that she should give Christianity a real chance and not just wholesale rejection. She invited her to visit church for 1 month. The young woman went and sat in the balcony. She even took a Bible – she owned her own and used it to debate against other Christians. The worship leader sang a Phil Wickham song that cut her to the core. He sang about God as the loving and mighty power that breaks through darkness and is declared holy by the moon and the stars and everything around us. This God who loves us though we are so unworthy.

A God who died even for people like her.

She patted her belly and the growing life within and wondered: “Could God really love her?” Even she, an unworthy woman, pregnant out-of-wedlock and with a past life a trail of emotional carnage? Even she, an atheist who mocked, laughed and scoffed at God, no different from the people who did the same as He bled on the cross and died for them and forgave them?

For the first time it dawned on her who God was and what He did. She accepted it.

That very day changed the trajectory of her life and her child. She eagerly now speaks to atheists – she knows exactly where they’re coming from.

We’re All the Same
Christians and atheists are all lost and broken people needing to be reconciled, restored, and redeemed with the unwavering love of God. Christians have simply recognized their desperate and lost status and have surrendered to that Love.

Atheists, and even questioning agnostics, are simply still resisting, but are only moments and a surrendered heart away from that same life-changing experience.

See Kristin’s story here.¹

Do you know anyone like this?
_______________________________
“The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” – Jeremiah 31:3

¹Former Atheist’s Testimony Will Restore Your Faith in God, GodTube, https:www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WZZDGGN.