Before I came to university, I thought most of the problems I faced in life could be fixed by working harder. If I didn’t do as well as I wanted to in an exam, I just needed to push myself further in my revision. If someone didn’t seem to like me, I needed to put in more effort, adjust my character to suit the other person. For a really long time, I didn’t see this 'do more' attitude as at all problematic. It didn’t strike me as particularly unhealthy, or sinful, given that I

I’ve been a Christian for what seems a really long time. In the Easter of 2011, after I had been on a Church camp, I remember sitting in a bedroom (known as the den) in my grandparents’ house and simply praying to God, recognising just how much I’ve fallen short of His standards and how it is only by Christ that I can be saved. I have experienced genuine joy and celebration in becoming a Christian, yet so much of my walk with Christ has not been filled with such happiness. Th

I didn't really understand what a saviour was when I was growing up. My family wasn't religious, I didn't spend much time thinking about God, and I considered the Bible a rather inspirational myth. I believed that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem riding a donkey in the same sort of way I vaguely believed in hobbits going to Mount Doom (I was an avid LOTR fan). A good story, and one that sometimes made my heart beat faster for the sheer beauty of it, but not one that could im