My name is Robert Cochran, I am nineteen years old, and I attend Avon Grove as a Senior. Some of you have come to know me as that crazy kid that moved here from Pittsburgh.

I was born and raised as a Christian, I sometimes wonder if my mother went to a church instead of a hospital to birth me. As a child I attended church and Sunday school. In Sunday school the teacher could ask any question and I would know the answer to it. The teacher would describe a squirrel, I would raise my hand and say “it sounds like a squirrel but the answer is Jesus”.

Sometime as a young teen I accepted Christ as my savoir. I began to go to youth group events and wear Christian t-shirts at this point. Not a very big change for me especially with the way that I was raised. Christianity and Christ as my savoir was something that I always understood. But I didn’t fully understand the cost of following Christ.

Luke 14:27-28 and you cannot be my disciple if you don’t carry your own cross and follow me “but don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills.

I didn’t do that, I didn’t count the cost. I had planned out my high school years. I was going to graduate at my old school, I had a wonderful girlfriend. I was deeply rooted with Christians in school; we had a bunch of Christian programs going on in school, that I was active with. I was a leader at my church’s youth group; I was looked up to and respected by everyone in the youth group and school, my youth minister was doing a wonderful program there. And my youth minister was my closest friend. My life was set, and through all of this I thought the cost of following Christ was saying yes I’d die for him, I would take a bullet for him. That’s not the entire cost of following Christ.

In August ’02 I found out that my dad was going to lose his job. Four months later I found out that he had gotten a job in Chester County, the other side of the state (to me at that time)! Two weeks after that I found out that my youth minister would be moving to South Carolina. My life and everything that I had planned, crumbled before my eyes. At this point I should have realized that this was God’s will for me to move, instead I was devastated, I didn’t want to go, it wasn’t my plan, I didn’t want to pay the cost to follow Christ.

Over the course of the about 6months in ’03 I fought against God and his will for me. I didn’t understand that this was what he wanted for me. I could only see an inch in front of my nose. I kept asking why there, what good can I do there, why? Because I didn’t get the answer from God of it’s all right I’ll let you stay in Pittsburgh and live a happy life pretending to do my will. I pushed God away.

I learned from pushing God away that it’s not a really good idea. God loved me and he knew my heart and that eventually I would turn back to him. So he sought me out. I didn’t get the first couple clues of God knocking on the door to my heart. IN fact I have a very thick skull and didn’t get it until sometime after I moved out here. But I did get enough of a clue that if I stayed I would lose all my friends in Pittsburgh, I had already lost my girlfriend at that time because of fighting God. He laid it on her heart that we weren’t to be together anymore and that was the end of it. I finally said fine I’ll move but if I don’t like it I’m moving in with grandparents.

I never moved in with my grandparents, in fact, I haven’t even had the thought cross my mind since. God got me out here and showed me a sea of blessing. Sure it was hard leaving everything that I knew and starting all over. But I have no regrets in following God’s plan, 6 to 7 years after I accepted Christ, God is still growing me. As Christians we have a long hard path filled with sacrifice, I started my journey not understanding the cost as having Christ as my savior. Now I am willing to lay my life before him and do as he tells me to. I will carry my cross anywhere that God sends me.