JOHN DEMPSTER: Carla Henderson from Inverness talks about her Christian experience
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Carla saw two birds of prey circling purposefully, high above the car.
She was 10, and her family were holidaying somewhere in the Highlands.
She had always believed what she’d been told about God, but in that moment Carla sensed “that the God who made this whole world, who designed these beautiful birds and this lovely landscape also designed me, knows me, loves me, wants to have a relationship with me”. In that moment, Carla tells me “I decided I wanted this faith to be my own”.
Carla Henderson, is an animated, articulate young woman from Inverness, about to begin the final year of a degree in English literature and theatre studies at the University of Glasgow.
What beliefs shape her life, I ask? She speaks of a loving God from whom human beings are estranged due to our messed-up lives. She speaks of Jesus, an embodiment of God who died on our behalf the death our sinfulness deserved. She speaks of an invitation to come to a now-living Jesus from whom, she says “we receive forgiveness and the relationship with God which I think everyone, deep down, longs for”.
Carla describes her daily Christian experience. There’s a connection with God which nourishes her through prayer and reflection on the Bible. There’s a challenge to live her life distinctively, hemmed in neither by peer pressure nor restrictive rules, but free to be the person she’s created to be, the person I see in front of me, marked by joy, zest for life and purpose. There’s a desire to help other people: this led her, for example, to work with refugees in Egypt during a gap year.
Heavily involved with the University Christian Union, Carla is eager to share her faith with fellow students when it’s appropriate the message of Christianity is, she says “the most amazing news, the biggest hope in my life”. While some friends say “it’s not for me,” others “have decided to follow Jesus and become a Christian”.
Faith, for Carla is on the one hand a matter of “knowing”. It’s logical to believe in a Creator God, she thinks, and in the light of this, logical to believe that God speaks in the Bible. But this knowing leads to experience: the sense of peace when she’s anxious, for example, clarity when she’s confused, ultimate security despite doubts.
And how affirming are moments like those when the great birds circle the beauty of nature, and it hits us that God is real, and “Yes!” we say to God, “Yes!, Yes!”
Carla agrees with CS Lewis: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” They’re right!
