“Atheism is really boring; there’s not a lot to it once you get deeper in,” Evan said. “Then you’re like, ‘Life has no meaning, what do I do now?’”

This was the predicament Evan found himself in when he arrived at Salt Lake Community College. After the hardships of 2020, he was convinced that religion was a “scam” and that God wasn’t truly there. But the “build-your-own meaning” nature of atheism was unsatisfying, and Evan longed for something more. 

When he encountered InterVarsity, he decided to give God a second chance.

Taking It as Far as It Could Get

“I was very much against religion,” Evan recalls, but coming from a missionary family, Evan’s parents urged him to search for a Christian group on campus anyway. So, midway through his first semester, he joined an InterVarsity Bible study. 

“I had a pretty good time. Even if I wasn’t really a believer then, I still enjoyed studying Scripture in that way. So I just kept coming back,” Evan said. “I wanted to take Christianity as far as I could get.”

Soon Evan was attending InterVarsity large groups and even said yes to fall conference. When his second semester came around, he began volunteering his free time to the chapter.

Then, Evan was invited to his first spring break camp at Catalina Island.

A Baby Christian

Though Evan said yes to going to camp simply because he “had nothing better to do over spring break,” camp was marked with intimate moments where he experienced God.

One of these moments happened while Evan was talking to a friend who was considering leaving her faith. The chapter came around her as she struggled, and after receiving prayer from them, she made a powerful decision to keep following Jesus. 

This made Evan contemplate his own spiritual journey, so he went on a hike. He encountered a herd of deer, and as he looked at them, he realized he had proof that God was undeniably real. This brought Evan to tears, and by the end of the week, something had changed in him. 

“I was like, ‘huh, I think I’m a Christian now,’” Evan said. “I was a baby Christian! Once you have these beliefs, you’re just on fire about them, you’re so excited that your life’s been invested with meaning from God!” 

A Moment Witnessed by Community

Evan spent the next year growing with InterVarsity, learning what it means to be a Christian, adopting a prayer routine, and figuring out how to experience God in daily life. Through it all, he was filled with joy because he had finally found the meaning he was longing for. 

“When you look at the person of Jesus and how beautiful and perfect he is in the way he treats others, you learn that, as Christians, we are supposed to emulate that,” Evan said. “Our reason to live is to be like Christ.”

By the time he returned to camp for a second time, Evan was ready to make another decision: he wanted to be baptized. He wanted to publicly declare his faith, and he wanted it to be witnessed by the community he had chosen. 

As he stepped into the water, he felt incredible peace and contentment.

“I was just enjoying the community I found and the faith I found through InterVarsity, and the people and the friends I had made,” Evan remembers. “I was satisfied in that. My community is ready to be there with me in my Christian walk and guide me through it.”

Evan is now preparing to become a leader of his InterVarsity chapter in the fall. Though he no longer identifies as an atheist, he believes that time in his life will help him connect with and offer hope to people who do. 

“Before [Jesus], I was directionless. I was hopeless. I wasn’t very satisfied with myself; I wasn’t very proud of who I was. After, I like being who I am,” he said. “The work of the Holy Spirit is that I can sit here today and say that my life is worth it, and God infuses meaning into the thread of my life. I can look back at my pre-Christian self and see that we’re living for completely different reasons now.”