Generally speaking, the high school years are years noted for their sense of turmoil and anxiety, the search to find one’s identity and serious questions about life’s meaning.

On the flip side, they can also be years of defining one’s identity, finding purpose in life and beginning to enjoy some of the freedom that comes from taking on responsibilities.

For me, the summer vacation before my senior year in high school ushered in a defining moment in my life. That’s when I knew that I knew that I knew.

A friend in my high school French class had something I didn’t possess. She had love for others.

I, on the other hand, was taken up with myself. I wanted to belong. I wanted to look good, and I wished I belonged to another family.

My friend, Robin, said that the difference I saw in her was Jesus Christ, and that he was alive and living in her.

No one I had met at church had ever spoken like that. They all seemed to be striving for acceptance, just as I was.

Robin, on the other hand, seemed to have unconditional love and an inner peace that she shared freely with everyone around her.

As I became more exposed to the Word of God, I began to understand that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God who was equal with God. I learned that He died and rose again for our sins — for my sins.

While attending a Christian summer camp in Chiba, Japan, I prayed, “Lord Jesus, if You are the Son of God, I invite You into my life as my personal Savor and Lord. Prove to me that You are real.”

My life changed drastically and dynamically, beginning that summer. I was able to say then, and I am still able to say, “I know that I know that I know that I am a child of God”.

And this is the testimony: ?? that God has given me eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”