Until a few years ago, freshman Sadie Maples was a secularist punk with an eating disorder. Now she’s a journalism major at Taylor University.
In her telling, this transformation was nothing short of miraculous.
“I was a burden to be around in every way,” she said of her wayward teenhood. “I just had this mentality of, I’m always right and everyone else is wrong.”
Insecure about herself, she found refuge in gym culture. Eventually, her interest in working out became an obsession – she developed an eating disorder and drifted away from God.
It wasn’t until she attended a youth event in high school that God broke through her myopia.
“The leader talked about pride, and I felt the Holy Spirit convict me in that moment,” she said. “From that day on, I just couldn’t shut up about Jesus and loved spending time with him.”
But the way back to faith was one paved with harsh realizations.
She felt that the Holy Spirit wanted to address her pride, as well as her relationship with her dad and others around her.
“And from there, it turned into tangible things in my life that the Holy Spirit was like, ‘You’re putting this in front of God. You’re putting your eating disorder in front of God. You’re putting the music you listen to in front of God,’” she said.
Now, she finds herself longing for God to sanctify her so that her desires and griefs align with his.
Her personal revival led her on a troubling tour of secular humanist philosophy. She recognized humanism had formed the backdrop of her former life, and most of her peers took it for granted. She credits authors like Francis Schaeffer and Nancy Pearcey with helping her deconstruct humanism for herself.
One humanist belief she had unknowingly imbibed was that man is the source and aim of human life.
“I needed to put myself first,” she said, “and the people around me were second, and God was second.”
When Maples dedicated herself to God, she had to learn that spending time with God and obeying his Word were her ultimate reasons for living, instead of doing what she wanted to do.
The discovery of humanism was a key moment in her reconversion. She remembers laughing and telling her mom she felt something altogether new.
“I feel like I can see again, I can see color,” she remembers saying.
It’s a gift Maples hopes to pass on to those who may also have to walk through spiritual lifelessness.
The blame for this, she says, lies squarely at the feet of humankind.
“Oftentimes when you are experiencing spiritual deadness or coldness, it’s because of the lifestyle you’re living,” she said.
However, she says there are practical ways wayward Christians can seek God for personal revival.
Listening to Christian music, getting an accountability partner and reading Christian books are all boons to faith, she said. She added that one book, “A Praying Life,” was particularly instrumental in changing her life.
She hopes that a crop of new leaders will take up the banner of cultural apologetics, flying it in a brave new world of post-Christian relativism. Francis Schaeffer is dead, she said, and who is to replace him?
“I think we need more people in the next generation who are willing to listen to the wisdom that the older generation is trying to pass down to us so that they can apply it to our culture today in a way that’s relevant and convicted,” she said.
