Testimony Tuesday: A relational God and a mission to reach Japan

By Balen Allain

Sophomore Mathias Hahn grew up in a Christian household with Christian parents, regular church attendance and a pastor for a father. He was saved at eight years old, believing in Jesus’ resurrection and payment for sin on the cross.

“I don’t know that my heart truly knew exactly what that choice was until probably junior, senior year of high school,” Hahn said. “I had different parts of my life, and Christ was a part, not the thing at the center that everything else branched off of.”

The realization was a gradual change. During elementary and middle school, Hahn shared with others that he had a good relationship with Christ because it was easy to say so. The relationship was shallow – he still knew what it meant for his salvation, but it wasn’t deep in his heart. He felt that he knew everything about God, and he didn’t reach for a personal relationship.

Hahn experienced his first real challenge to his faith in eighth grade when he engaged in pornography for the first time.

“Until that point of time I had never felt, ‘Oh, this is really bad,’” Hahn said. “Things I did were, ‘Oh yeah, I lied to my teacher.’ Everybody does that. it’s wrong, I apologize for it, I move on.”

For Hahn, the experience was on a new scale that he hadn’t experienced before in a Christian household. He realized that he could still struggle with serious sins.

“I had a great conversation with my dad about it after struggling with it for some time,” Hahn said. “That was the first moment of ‘Okay, this is something that is a real difficult challenge.’ This is really harmful.”

As Hahn grew older, he realized that it wasn’t easy to maintain a relationship with God. High school brought more independence and responsibility.

“I started to fall off and make worse choices more often that didn’t exactly damage me, per se, but they also didn’t grow my relationship,” Hahn said. “It revealed to me that it wasn’t where it should have ever been.”

As high school ended, Hahn dedicated himself to improving his relationship with Christ. He was very introverted in high school and generally avoided activities and social life.

When he went to Cedarville University, he found that if he wanted to pursue the faith, then he would have to step up and pursue it – and that’s what he chose. He made an effort to be encouraging when talking to others and put himself out there in social events.

“I’m able to make friends and enjoy spending time with them,” Hahn said. “Those friendships are grounded in our collective relationships that we have with Christ, and how they’re the same and how they’re different.”

Hahn’s prayer life changed, too.

“Now it’s much more relational – if I’m just thinking about something, I’ll have a conversation with Him in prayer,” Hahn explained. “It’s a, ‘Hey, I’m walking to class right now. This thing is on my mind

because of this, and then also I feel this because of this situation related to it. Help me out here.’ It’s a lot more natural and personal.”

Hahn sees how God demonstrates his relational character through the Trinity. God the Father has an intimate relationship with Jesus and the Spirit, and they have a relationship with each other, too.

Having gone to a Christian high school, Hahn hadn’t expected Cedarville to be any different. During the weekly chapels in high school, he watched as most others paid little to no attention, fell asleep and sat on their phones. He expected to see as much at Cedarville chapels.

“I was taken aback when ninety percent of the people around me pulled out notebooks and Bibles and started taking notes,” Hahn said. “This is what I’d been missing out on.”

The community at Cedarville affected his career, too. He came to Cedarville as an Industrial Design major – after two years at Cedarville, they go to Columbus for the remaining two years.

“The longer I stayed on campus, the more I realized that I didn’t think two years was going to be enough,” Hahn said. “I wanted to be here all four. Opportunities like studying abroad or rooming with certain people, just being able to pursue certain relationships would become unavailable if I moved to Columbus.”

He switched to Visual Communication Design to study graphic design, remaining in a similar field while gaining four years at Cedarville.

Hahn’s designs and art have a lot of influence from Japanese culture. He visited Japan last May on vacation, but his experience left him with a sobering reality: Japan needs Christ.

“An extremely small population of people in that area are actually Christians,” Hahn said. “It gets swept under the rug a lot because the country doesn’t look like it’s struggling.”

Christians don’t experience persecution in Japan but face apathy and disinterest.

“The average citizen of Japan goes ‘Oh, you’re a Christian. That’s awesome, and I’m glad for you, but I don’t need that – I’m doing good,’” Hahn explained. “They just don’t see any need for it at all.”

He doesn’t want to let his interest in graphic design just be an interest, but a passion he can put towards Christ’s mission. He wants to see the culture that inspires him turned to Christ.

“I don’t know how I would do it,” Hahn said, “but I feel very strongly that that is something I would be very interested in doing – maybe living over there or working with mission groups to reach that culture.”

He finds inspiration and strength in Joshua 1:9.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

“Don’t be afraid. Don’t be disheartened. God is with you wherever you go, in whatever you do. I don’t have to be nervous and stressed about that conversation I’m gonna have later. I can talk about my faith, they can talk about their faith,” Hahn said. “Pursue that relationship with that friend. Be the person there for someone who doesn’t have all these people. Take the class you think is really hard but cool. Take those steps, whether they’re small or large, in your faith and in your relationships, even if in the moment it can seem like a scary idea. I guarantee you the payout will be more than worth it if you pursue it right.”

Balen Allain is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media, and Journalism major. He enjoys gaming, writing, and music.