Atlanta Metro

Chris Mardis

I'm a Consultant with a small company in Atlanta. I graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2005. I love to travel! So far I've been to China, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, and then of course around the US.

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travel, acoustic guitar, ultimate frisbee, friends, movies

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Chris Mardis's Story

Just Believe It

He's not through with me yet.

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God, doubt, approval, success

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Everyone knew what was coming. I never admitted it, but I knew it was coming too. I wanted it to come. I thought it would make me who I wanted to be. I wanted to be somebody, and not just anybody. It was Honors Day at Pope High School during my senior year. The students, faculty, and administration had made their decision...I was recognized as Mr. Pope High School...out of 2,200 students I was proud to receive that plaque.

This is who I wanted to be; someone noticeable, someone important, someone respected. Through all of the things I was involved in, all the good grades I made, and all the success I pursued, I just wanted to be content with who I was. Not too much to ask, right? I was pretty happy. I had all the things I wanted. I got the recognition, I got the success, and I was happy. But I was tired of needing more to be content with myself. I had worked hard to be recognized, but soon I had stashed the plaque in a drawer full of junk, looking for something more somewhere else.

What was it that was going to last? What could I run after for myself and not get tired? I could have told you. I was a Christian; I had been to church; I knew all the "Sunday school answers." My faith in Christ and the joy that comes from knowing Him is supposed to be the only thing that really lasts. Only problem is, I didn't REALLY believe that. I had accepted the story about Jesus Christ as truth for myself, but I was still pursuing those other things that would make a name for myself so I could be somebody. THAT is what I really believed was worth my effort.

Senior year was over, summer had passed, and it was off to college at Georgia Tech! What an awesome opportunity! Here I could definitely pursue the successful life I wanted.

I was refreshed and ready to start from scratch. I was well on my way, too, with what I knew would bring even more recognition than I had in high school. Then the fires set in. I got burned out, and it happened quickly. The same tiredness I had experienced in high school set in at college, but this time even more so.

Maybe I could have continued to muster some drive and get right back to making a name for myself, but what for? I was just going to get tired of it again. That seemed pretty pointless to me.

I still had that truth of Jesus Christ. God knew it was there; He kept it there so I could learn...and I had a lot to learn. See, what was going to make me somebody, was not trying to CREATE who I wanted to be...it was BELIEVING who I already was.

I was (and I am) a son of God through faith in Jesus Christ. It sounds ridiculous, but how freeing it is to know that I am already everything that I want to be, "and this not from [myself], it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). And it's the very gift that I was missing out on by not simply believing and embracing the truth.

But so often I find that it is far too easy to slip back into my old habits of making myself into somebody, rather than believing that God has already made me somebody. It's definitely a process. I continue to learn about God and learn about myself, but there always remains the truth I can restfully come back to: I already am somebody; loved, accepted, and recognized...unconditionally.