As I think back to a very special day in my past it is amazing to discover that everything that  happened was marked by a strange divine destiny. Very often we see many things happen in our lives for which we have no idea whether they will have any meaning in our future.

But that day everything mattered. Each person must discover Jesus on their own and at the right time in their life, this is my story of how I came to Discover Jesus.

I’m Italian and you can call me Dany. I grew up in Rome, Italy and like most every other Italian I was part of the Roman Catholic Church. In fact I was very happy to be a Catholic and felt that this was the perfect church and I would never go looking at other types of churches. I love art and theatre so living in Rome gave many opportunities to enjoy the beautiful churches. One Sunday I was walking in the center of my city when I found the open gate to a church I had wanted to visit for a long time. I had never managed to enter this Gothic Church for the simple reason that every time I tried to visit it the door was shut.

That day when I found the open gate to the church I didn't hesitate at all to go in to gaze at the beautiful paintings and mosaics. It seemed that the service had finished as I noticed that there were people from all nationalities talking to one another. Someone came up to me and asked whether I was interested in the service that had just finished or the church building. I replied that my only real interest was to visit the church building. Our conversation turned to Gospel Music, I love Gospel Music! And I agreed to come back the following Sunday for the service.

During that week I wasn’t at all thinking of the event because at the time I was going through a spell of deep depression. I was feeling like nothing could deliver me out of my tunnel. I felt like a fish out of the water with no real focus in life. I knew that I wasn’t following the right path but I didn’t know how to get to it either.

Luca, the person I had met on Sunday in the church rang me up the following Sunday to encourage me to come. I had been feeling so uncertain about keeping my promise to attend the event. Later on I learned that people had been praying for me that week. With the encouragement of Luca I decided to go and I went by myself.

The service had already started and people of all nationalities were worshipping God in a way I had never heard about. Another thing I noticed was that these people were filled with love for God who I really sensed was among them.

From the beginning of the Gospel music I started crying and I just couldn’t stop. I felt I was welcome in that place and that I had finally found what I was longing for deep down in my heart. That church and everything that was in it had become everything I had hoped so much for throughout my entire life. I wasn’t sure but I felt like everything was exactly as it should be for me to Discover Jesus as my Savior.

The song we sang before the Pastor got up to speak was: “I give you Jesus”, and it fit perfectly as it penetrated into my heart. The sermon that followed the Gospel Music was entitled “My father carry the Cross of Christ”, it dealt with the topic of salvation. Throughout the service there was something so spectacular happening that I felt it had to be divine. I felt like the Pastor was speaking to me as he brought his message to the two hundred other people in the audience that day. The Holy Spirit of God was speaking through him to me.

Even after the Gospel Music finished and the Pastor was talking up front I kept on crying but I knew my tears were because I was deeply sorry for my sins. The Lord had planned every moment on that day! My discovery of the right path for my life had started as I walked through the doors of that church. When the Pastor called people to come forward to accept Jesus into their lives as their personal Savior I felt I had been called to the front. I wasn’t sure yet what it would really mean to accept Jesus into my life, but I obeyed the voice of God and went forward, there a man pray with me.  

At that moment I believed that God could do something for me. I felt that He was the only person that could give me freedom from my sin and that in Christ I was forgiven forever. As soon as I said yes to Jesus in my life I understood why He died in my place.  Through Jesus I was able to find the right path that I had been looking for.

After praying with the man up front God sent me a sign through the song “Amazing grace”. That was the start of my relationship with God was to Discover Jesus. The choice I made that day to follow the Jesus is the best choice I have ever made in my life. Following my choice to follow Him I came out of my tunnel of depression and felt like I belonged and had a focus for my life. God has been faithful to me every day and He will be throughout eternity!

That Sunday by Dany is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.