“Can You Just Turn to Me?”

A Personal Testimony

By: Betsy Roeder

At sixteen years old, I was a “good Catholic kid.” I went to church every Sunday and on the surface seemed confident and even spiritual.

Inwardly, however, I felt adrift, distressed by questions I couldn’t answer. It seemed as though life was some sort of a test: Get good grades, avoid the party scene, be a nice person—and somehow this would improve my chances of going to heaven. But was it really only about trying to follow a moral code? Where was God in all this? I knew he existed, but he seemed so distant, and I felt so alone.

Hungry for something more, I started going on youth retreats. At one of them, I went to Confession and revealed sins that I had felt too ashamed to mention—like the time I shoplifted by switching price tags on a toy.

The confessor told me just what I needed to hear. “God is not a taskmaster. He’s not evaluating your every move, waiting…

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