Testimony - Rev James Henley
"As a teenager, my faith shifted from knowing about God to truly knowing Jesus. Raised in church, I wrestled with intellectual arguments but ultimately found assurance in God’s unshakable presence. Through life’s highs and lows, trusting in Jesus as my guardian and friend became my foundation. Now, as a husband, father, and priest, I remain deeply grateful for His constant presence in my life."
It was really when I was in my teens that my faith shifted from being ‘knowledge about God’ to really knowing Jesus for myself.
I’d always been brought up in and around the Church, and going to services on Sundays was part of our weekly routine. From a young age, I’d learnt all the usual Sunday school bible stories. But, as part of growing up, I now realised that I needed to make a decision about what I believed for myself. Plus, I’d also discovered that being from a Christian family put me in the minority amongst my school friends. While I was at church on Sundays, they were out playing football or enjoying a lie in!
I can remember agonising over the different intellectual arguments for God’s existence, or not. But ultimately, these weren’t what really made a difference. What led me to confirm my faith was instead an unshakable sense of God’s presence. A loving presence journeying alongside me that I just couldn’t shake off – no matter what I faced or how skeptical I became. A being so entirely beyond my ability to comprehend, and yet which was at the same time deeply intimate and personal.
Ultimately, through all the ups and downs of adolescense, it was this loving presence of God which came to win my trust and assurance. Trusting in Jesus, feeling I knew him as a guardian and friend, was what led me to believe in Christianity for myself.
Twenty-something years later, I’m now a husband, a father and a priest. Thinking about all those intervening years – the ups and downs, joys and sorrows – I’m still filled with gratitude for God’s abiding presence in my life. The one who, no matter what, has stuck with me – alongside me and within me.