The rally to redemption: Greta Blakemore’s testimony

By Maggie Fipps

It was a long road to Greta Blakemore’s senior night at Cedarville University. Growing up, Blakemore’s family moved seven times, from Ohio to Kentucky to Japan to Canada to Mississippi to Lexington. The constant movement formed Blakemore’s character and forged close bonds with her family, bonds which would eventually draw her back to Christ. 

“We’ve had to lean on each other so much through so many shifting lives,” Blakemore said. “I feel like I gained experience on how to walk into a new situation and be able to put myself out there and make friends.” 

Blakemore’s family world revolved around Christ, but she wrestled with doubt on and off. With uncertainty in her personal and social life, Blakemore committed to play collegiate volleyball at Union University in Tennessee before starting her senior year at Lexington Christian Academy. 

“It was a lot walking in not knowing anybody, but I had volleyball to fall back on,” Blakemore said. “I thought that it would give me stability going into that year and provide me with some clarity on what I was doing afterward.” 

Volleyball was her constant through the moving and the changing. 

Blakemore said she “coasted” through senior year, but secretly, she wrestled with doubt and fell into sin. As rebellion bubbled to the surface, Blakemore fell into a group of athletes at LCA whose popularity elevated her social status. Hangouts turned into parties that turned into a friend group, and quickly her identity shifted. 

“I just got surrounded by the cool athletic kids and was like, ‘Oh dang, I can be a cool kid.’” 

On the day of her high school graduation, Blakemore attended a party, which set the tone for a wild, rebellious summer. 

One of those cool athletic kids was a football player who eventually became her boyfriend only three days before she moved to Tennessee and he left for Chicago. 340 miles away from her family and 480 miles from her boyfriend, at least Blakemore had volleyball. But even the game felt distant. 

“I really struggled with that, because I placed my identity in physical things with him and the way I was living my life,” Blakemore said. “I started off preseason an emotional wreck.” 

Blakemore said she fell into sexual sin, her goody-two-shoes veneer slowly fading in front of her new roommates. Instead of pushing her away or calling her out, this grew their friendships. Greta called that “the turning point.” 

The sin only grew stronger, and the deception grew deeper. Several weeks into the semester, Blakemore visited her boyfriend in Chicago, and a call from her parents stuck in her mind. 

“That was a point where I was like, ‘Dang, this is not ok, but I’m already this deep, how am I going to come out of it?’” Blakemore said. “As long as I didn’t have them chatting in the back of my head, I was able to be completely somewhere else and live the way I wanted to there.”

January term, a three-month break in Union’s schedule, provided a welcome relief, or so she thought. She could no longer dodge her parents’ phone calls or hide the content lurking on her phone. After a massive argument, her dad took her phone.

“All of the stuff and the way I had been living came to light, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt more alone,” Blakemore said. “I didn’t even know who I was, because the way I had been living immediately came to light, and I was like, ‘Who is this?’”

Her parents immediately took everything away: her phone, computer, car. To top it off, a massive snowstorm left Greta alone with her thoughts. But they didn’t throw her out into the snow. 

“When it all happened, I was so mad and tried to leave and walk out. My dad was like, ‘No, Greta, please stay.’ Even though they were so mad and so hurt and so broken, that they were willing to accept all of that and still invite me into their house and work through it…was so powerful to me.”
 

After that, confessions poured out of her. Over many difficult hours of discussions with her parents, praying hard, and poring over Scripture, her life radically changed that winter. Greta said she decided to not return to Union because her identity was so different. 

That winter semester looked monotonous: waiting tables at First Watch and living at home. Greta knew she needed some kind of community, so she started to attend Christian Student Fellowship at the University of Kentucky. However, on her first night, her past came back to haunt her. Acquaintances from LCA who Greta broke relationships with stared back at her. Surprisingly, they invited her in. 

“The girls were so interested in knowing me, and they were so interested in knowing the Lord,” Blakemore said. “It was the first time I was vulnerable enough to accept discipleship and accept walking with people.” 

That Bible study centered on the Lord’s love in Ephesians, and Greta said she experienced that tangibly in the friendships she built that year. Amid brokenness, the Lord entered in. 

“The biggest thing in all of it was accepting forgiveness because I wanted to sit in the fact that I was so broken and messed up,” Blakemore said. 

As she contemplated returning to college and volleyball, she reached out to Cedarville’s Coach Greg Smith about any openings on the team. Although the team was full, he invited her to come and practice with them. Even after taking three months off, Greta practiced so well that Smith opened up a spot for her. But volleyball still held some memories for Greta that she could not shake. 

“The first year I stiff-armed volleyball,” Blakemore said. “I was holding onto so much shame from the situation that I was holding onto shame in volleyball. I was very apologetic and timid. In a way, I correlated that so much with the past season of my life.”

Going into her junior season, Blakemore lived with two teammates, Talia Felton and Paige Hale, which changed the game on the court and in her life. 

“We got to share our testimonies and dig deep into knowing each other as people,” Blakemore said. “That just translated to even confidence on the court, knowing that they know me, they love the Lord, and we get to play this sport together.”

In her senior year, as she looks to a wedding in June and a career in geriatric nursing, she sees the Lord’s redemption.

“In these past couple of seasons, [volleyball] called out so much in my life,” Blakemore said. “This year, I have just been praying that the Lord would give me joy and also just display Him however that looks. That’s been my focus this year, and it’s just been freeing.”

Maggie Fipps is a senior journalism student and the sports editor of Cedars. She enjoys playing the piano and thrifting, and you may spot her around campus sporting Packers gear head to toe.

Photo by Logan Howard