The Buddhist-Catholic Atheist

By Steven Nguyen

My father is a Buddhist and my mother is a Catholic. Odd combination, but here I am. Growing up in the South, especially here in Dallas, one would think that every individual would know who God is or who Jesus is. I ended up as one who did not know that there was a God, and had no knowledge of who this person of Jesus Christ was.

My parents taught me that I was to be a good kid, get an education, and get a good job. I built my whole life on those principles. But without God, and as an only child whose parents were always working, I had no affirmation or wisdom as to how I was living or working. This led to some really poor decisions, and caused me to begin looking for affirmation in sports, band, and girls.

My senior year of high school, I placed my hope in having a dating relationship with a particular young lady. I was very disappointed when that failed to work out, and confided in a mutual friend to try to find out what went wrong. All she told me was that I should believe in Jesus, and then she walked away from me. Completely dumbfounded by her answer, I began to wrestle with the idea that God might be real. Through a series of situations and conversations, God started drawing me towards the Bible. I found a Bible, started reading, and from day one had an insatiable thirst for the Scriptures. God started to reveal Himself to me through His Word.

It was through the Gospel of John that I learned about the person of Jesus. Jesus answers Thomas in John 14:6-7, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." I then learned about the beginning of sin in Genesis 3, which is why the world is fallen and broken, and how in 2 Cor. 5:21, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." In Ephesians 2, I learned that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But God, because of His great love for us, made us alive in Christ. He gave me the grace and faith to repent and confess Jesus as Lord and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead.

Today I stand with David in Psalm 143:10, "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." I am a recent college graduate and have moved back home to Dallas. I am going to battle against sin, waging war with the flesh in community, and am absolutely ecstatic to serve Watermark with the gifts God has given me for His glory. Arm in arm with God, I am working to build up the church here at Watermark, to seek the welfare of Dallas, and to make Him famous.

What's your story? Contact us at theporch@watermark.org to learn more about sharing your testimony.