My name is Balazs Paraszthy, I’m from Hungary, and I’d like to share my story how I became a Christian.
So one day during the summer of 2013, I was at my previous workplace, and I was just casually surfing the internet. On a Formula-1 site, I saw a banner, saying “Six straightforward reasons to conclude that God exists.” It looked interesting, so I clicked, and I landed on everystudent.hu, the hungarian version of everystudent.com.
I read the article, and it was very clear and very logical. I did not expect that, though even before that, I was sure of God’s existence, I just didn’t know what kind of god he is. There were a couple more articles about different topics, I read them as well, and by the time I finished with them, something has changed. I became interested. On the site there was a link that said something like “I accept Jesus in my life, and I’d like to know more” I wasn’t at this part yet, I was not sure if I want to accept Jesus, but I was curious what may happen if I click on that link.
I was thinking like “If I really click, Jesus will really come into my life? What if I just click out of curiosity, or by mistake? Will he come anyway?” I was suspicious, and I had no idea what does “accepting Jesus” means technically. I also knew that by accepting Jesus, you invite the Holy Spirit as well. You may have noticed, I’m a practical guy. I was thinking like “Okay, if I click this link, I accept Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will come too. Does that mean that I’m –technically- downloading the Holy Spirit?” That thought was hilarious. I was like “Is this how this works nowadays? No church, no priest, just clicking?” Honestly, I wanted to test it. So I clicked.
Needless to say, nothing happened. I didn’t hear a heavenly choir, I didn’t feel enlightened, I felt nothing. But there was a box, where I could ask questions, and that was exactly what I needed. I had tons of questions. Long story short, I wrote an e-mail with my concerns and doubts, and I started to correspond with a woman, who was a volunteer on the site. After a few months we have met in person, along with her husband and kids, and we became friends. After a while, I ran out of questions, and I accepted Jesus, not by clicking on a link, but by heart. I thought I was at the finish. In truth, it was just the beginning.
What has happened ever since? God has made his presence known in my life in many-many ways. First and most importantly, the painful feeling of missing something in my life, is gone. I always have felt that, but not anymore. My health is slowly started to improve too. Just after becoming a believer, I’ve fallen into a financial crisis (I was unemployed), that I had no chance to solve on my own. I asked God for help. To be honest, I wanted to test him. See if he is really that almighty as he says he is. Yeah, I was a “bit” arrogant, I admit. The very next day one of my high school friends called me out of nowhere, and offered me a job. I haven’t talked to him in two years. Coincidence? I didn’t think so. My doubts were all gone.
Now, I’m a volunteer on everystudent.hu myself. One could say, that I switched sides. First, I was asking the questions, now I’m answering them, and I try to get Jesus be known to others as well, using the internet. If it wasn’t for the digital means, I probably wouldn’t be a christian. I never really trusted religious people, but a website seemed harmless enough. I know that many people around my age feel the same. I’m 26 by the way. I had the chance to attend to the Indigitous Amsterdam conference in 2014, where I got to know the big picture, and I also got to know some truly fantastic people. I’m sure I will continue along this path and I’m excited to see, where God will lead me. Thanks for reading, God bless.
P.S. Here is also a video version of my story.