Max von Arx

Contingent staff

I grew up going to church when it was convenient for my mom, my stepdad, and I. I resented going to church, yet considered myself a christian already because I simply believed that the Christian God exists, despite not knowing who he truly was.

I went through all of middle school and high school stricken with intense insecurities about my appearance, popularity, and capacity to succeed at the things I was involved in. These insecurities influenced every decision I made, and no matter how many avenues I pursued, I found no fulfillment in my life. I was empty and desirous of anything that would give meaning to the things I was doing. The thought crossed my mind one night during my senior year of high school that perhaps God was the missing piece of the puzzle. I thought that God, in addition to all of the things I was pursuing would fulfill me, but God would soon teach me over the coming months that He was the only thing that could ever fulfill my longing for purpose and security. 

I went to a summer camp that the church I went to endorsed every summer, and I heard the Gospel there for the first time. It was the first time I can remember ever being called a sinner, and that Jesus was the only way that I could ever be saved from my fatal sin problem. 

When I got to Bellarmine University in the fall of 2020, I joined a club called Bellarmine Christian Fellowship, so I could figure out how to put my faith in Jesus and be rescued from all of my sin. After the first meeting of the semester, a Campus Outreach staff member invited me to get a workout in with him at the on-campus gym. After that, he continually pursued me in an intentional discipleship relationship through bible studies, inviting me into his home, sharing the gospel with me regularly, and inviting me to Campus Outreach events. 

Throughout the entirety of my freshman year, I still wrestled with my violent insecurities which compelled me to find fulfillment through the pursuit of earthly pleasures. I pursued all of them to their bitter ends, and as I was being taught about who Jesus was, I found his promises of peace and security to be too glorious not to give my life to. After witnessing the folly, destruction, and anxiety that my sin brought about, I gave my life to Christ and his glorious will in April of 2021. 

After that point, I have not stopped pursuing the Lord. He has given me a desire to kill my sin and pursue him in everything I do. My life is a living sacrifice to Him, and I yearn to please him as I walk in faith for every day of my life. I pray that he gives me the opportunity to share this hope and joy with many men all around the world who were lost in their sin like me. I thank God every day that he was gracious enough to pluck me from the darkness of sin before time in order that I might receive the riches that his Son’s perfect life, death, and resurrection has merited, for I am so undeserving.