In our ever-changing society to what else can we cling, what else is there that is as unshakeable and eternal as true faith in God? A friend told me a story about being in a university lecture where students were asked to raise their hands if they felt they knew who they were. My friend, sitting near the front of the lecture hall, raised her hand and then turned around to realize she was the only person with her hand up. Most students feel they don’t know themselves because they don’t know where they want to work, whether they should pursue post-graduate studies, what they want to do with their lives. Sitting in that lecture hall, my friend didn’t know where she stood on those issues either. She didn’t have the rest of her life planned out exactly, and she could have taken that as a lack of self-identity. But she knew that she was a child of God and that wherever she went she would serve Him. Nothing is as powerful as knowing that in God we find a purpose, a personal plan for each of us no matter how unworthy we are. That, combined with the promise of eternal love, support and mercy, has given me truly life-changing confidence. Confidence in God, and confidence in my unchanging role as His servant.

At a monthly adoration event I regularly attend, participants are invited to light a candle and place it before the monstrance as a symbol of their devotion and obedience to God. For me, nothing is as significant as the walk toward the altar. Who am I to approach the living God in my weakness? But Christmas is the perfect time to reflect on the fact that Jesus understands me in my humanity. God was revealed to us through someone fully God and fully human — what better symbol is there for this than a crying baby sent to save all mankind?

Knowing that God understands and loves us in our concupiscence is a powerful revelation: “For because He Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). Because God will never lose patience with our failings, we never have to lose faith that He will be there for us. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Our world is shifting and complex and nothing is certain. Nothing, that is, except a God who has promised to love us unconditionally, no matter how undeserving we are.

(Steele, 20, is a third-year Sociology student at Dalhousie University in Halifax.)