There's nothing helpless about my devotion

I guess this blog post is late in coming , or maybe I am just late in me finding my voice.
I am a devoted follower of Christ and I have been raised in the church all my life. I have loved Jesus from a very young age. Church was a big part of my upbringing and I spent a lot of time there. A lot of my social interaction occurred at church functions and my closest friends were members of the same congregation.
I was raised in what I lovingly refer to as a a non-denominational church with pentecostal tendencies. We were preached to and prayed for every Sunday. Services ended with altar calls and when I was feeling particularly guilty about some mis-step I had made I would excuse myself and hide in the bathroom until it seemed like altar time was wrapping up. In my later teen years I struggled to make the right choices in some situations, but I never walked away from what I believed in.
My first year in college, we had a religion professor who really didn't seem to believe in God, at least not the God I was taught about in Sunday School. He asked me questions that I could not handle and I felt like a failure who could not defend her faith. I had friends that were atheists and agnostics and those that had a real bone to pick with religious hypocrites. It was the first time in my sheltered life that I had ever been referred to as ignorant because of my beliefs. It was at that time as a young adult that I began to question my beliefs. Not because I doubted God, but because I wanted to test out if I was a blind follower or a true believer.
There were a few rough years where I made some mistakes, but through it all I never truly walked away. In my late 20's I made the decision to finally fully commit to the One who has done so much for me and I have never looked back.
I don't often feel the need to defend my faith, but clearly the time is coming because over the past few weeks I have had some rather hurtful comments scoffing at my beliefs coming from people that I respect. These comments have been replaying in my head and I am in awe of how people who can be so tolerant of so many things have no tolerance for the things of God.
And now more than 20 years later I feel like that insecure freshman...inadequate in terms of answering an intellectual challenge on the realness of God. Yet this time around I am confident. I am confident that God is real to me. He always has been and He always will be. I know will never lose the love of my Savior and that is enough for me.

Shameful!

WOW - Has it really been more than three months since my last post? Yep! Life got crazy busy and I somehow couldn't even find time or energy to muster a single blog post. But now I am back! I realized through this hiatus that writing is part of me. It is therapeutic. It helps me work through my thoughts, feelings, reactions and everyday moments. It makes me feel connected and I need to do it. I realize that blog writing is at times a bit self-indulgent. But I am also realizing it is OK to self indulge! SO I am vowing time to indulge in more self-expression and if you're still willing to be on this ride...welcome aboard!