Changed My Life & Legacy
By Jodie Swee, YL Staff
My life was irrevocably changed when a cute boy with ridiculously long eyelashes invited me to a Young Life club during my sophomore year of high school. At the time, I was ambivalent about faith and God. But it was a fun party on a Monday night, and my friends were there, so I kept going.
That summer, all my friends—and that cute, long-lashed boy—signed up to go to Saranac, a Young Life camp in upstate New York. I decided to join them. At camp, I heard for the first time, in words I could actually understand, that Jesus hadn’t just died for the sins of “the world” but for me personally. Even more, I learned that God wanted a relationship with me.
At the end of that camp week, I wrote a letter to God. It said, “I don’t know what this means, and I don’t know where it will take me, but I know I don’t want to do it on my own. So everything I have, I give to You.”
Little did I know how much that commitment would shape my life or how faithfully the Lord would hold me to it. I thought I’d become a fancy publicist—or maybe a talk show host—but instead, I became a pastor and joined the Young Life staff. I thought I’d marry my high school boyfriend, but instead, I endured what felt like 1,000 years of singleness (okay, it was five years, but that feels eternal when you’re in your 20s!) before meeting my beloved husband. I thought I’d raise my kids in the Midwest, yet here I am navigating life with my family in California.
But it wasn’t just my life that was transformed because a cute boy invited me to Young Life, where I met Jesus. It’s Kaitlin’s life. And Annie’s. And Brad’s, Peter’s, and Lucy’s. These are just a few of the kids whose lives I’ve seen changed over my 30 years with Young Life—a ministry that points teenagers to Jesus in a way that changes their stories forever.
Young Life matters to me because it’s one of the most impactful expressions of Jesus’ love I’ve ever experienced. It changes the trajectory of lives and the legacies of families and communities.
It’s worth every ounce of time, effort, and resources to ensure the next generation has the same opportunity I did—to discover they are seen, known, and deeply loved by a God who longs for a personal relationship with them.
