This is how I became a Christian….

I was born a Muslim.
And now, I’m a Christian.

Before you hiss and close this page 😂😂, just relax……this post is not about religion.

I’m not here to compare faiths, convince anyone of anything, or start a debate. Religion is just one example in a much bigger conversation I’ve been thinking about lately.

Now before I give you the ‘tea’ on why I converted, I want you to pause and ask yourself this question?

Do you actually have a mind of your own or do you just think you do?

This thought hit me recently while scrolling on Twitter (X). And if you’ve spent any real time there, you know how it works. Someone posts a video….a picture or just basically tweets something, and before you even view it, there’s already a quote attached to it. An opinion. A judgment. A conclusion you’re meant to arrive at.

So, in real sense…..you don’t really watch the video with a blank mind.
You watch it already guided.

And to be honest I’ve noticed how easily my thoughts want to align with whatever framing I see first, how quickly my brain wants to agree, absorb, and move on. And most times, if the topic isn’t deeply personal, I don’t even question it.

But every now and then, something makes me pause.

For instance, today, while scrolling on X…..I saw a video of a Black woman installing a wig at a bus stop and someone had quoted it saying, “Stereotypes are not given, they’re earned.” And almost instantly, I agreed…..because really why are you Installing your frontal at a bus stop??

Almost instantly though, I stopped and asked myself:
Why did I agree so fast?
Did I actually believe that?
Or was I just adopting someone else’s conclusion?

That moment made me uncomfortable, because it reminded me how often we mistake ‘borrowed opinions‘ for independent thought.

And this isn’t just a social media thing.
It’s a life thing.

We inherit opinions.
We inherit beliefs.
We inherit cultural norms.
And most of the time, we never stop to ask where they came from or whether they even make sense to us.

As a Nigerian, I see this constantly in how we defend culture. There are practices people uphold fiercely, not because they understand them, but because “that’s how it has always been.”

For example, in some cultures, when a woman’s husband dies, she is expected to marry his brother. It’s tradition.

But why?

What problem was it meant to solve?
Who decided it?
Who does it benefit?
Who does it harm?

Most people don’t know the answers or even the reasoning behind it……yet they’ll defend the practice anyway and questioning it feels like rebellion. Like disrespect. Like betrayal.

And that’s when I realized something important….

A lot of us live our entire lives without ever truly thinking for ourselves.

We defend things we don’t understand.
We promote ideas we’ve never examined.
We hold convictions we never chose.

That’s where my religion example or conversion story comes in briefly.

I was born into Islam, which meant that for most of my life, I believed it was the “truth” simply because it was what I was taught. I didn’t question it, not because I fully understood it, but because questioning wasn’t part of the process.

Later in life, when I began learning about God and Spirituality, I got introduced to Christianity but this time….I didn’t just accept it blindly. I questioned. I researched. I unlearned things. I formed my own understanding.

And again, this isn’t about faith.
It’s about choice, It’s about independent thinking…

About realizing that living intentionally means you don’t just inherit a worldview, you examine it.

I think it gets to a point in life where you have to pause and ask yourself:

• Do I actually believe this?
• Do I understand this?
• Or was I just told this?

Because there’s a difference between having a head full of information and having a mind that understands.

And I don’t think anyone can say they’ve truly lived until they’ve done that work , until they’ve stopped long enough to unlearn, question, and choose for themselves.

Not to be contrarian.
Not to be rebellious.
But to be honest.

The point of this post is not to convince anyone to change their beliefs. It’s to encourage people to try something simple but powerful…..think independently for yourself. Unlearn what you think you know. Start learning again with intention. Ask questions. Sit with discomfort. And come to your own conclusions.

And here’s the thing, if you do all that, and you still arrive at the same beliefs you started with, that’s actually a beautiful thing. It means you didn’t just inherit your stance…..you chose it. It means you truly have a mind of your own.

I think of it like those love stories where someone loses their memory after an accident. They forget the person they were in love with, forget the history, forget everything. But as they get to know that person again, they fall in love all over again. Not because of memory, but because the love was real and if they end up falling in love with someone else? Haha…..that would be crazyyyy but at least it would be their choice.

And you know, that’s exactly what independent thinking looks like to me.

You forget.
You relearn.
You rediscover.

And maybe you fall back in love with the same ideas.
Or maybe you don’t.
Either way, what matters is that the thoughts you carry are yours.

Of course, we will always be influenced…..that’s part of being human. But I believe the majority of what lives in our minds should come from our own understanding, our own questioning, our own truth.

That’s all I wanted to share.

Before I end this, I want to be very clear again…..as I’ve said earlier, this is not a post about religion.

I’m simply sharing how I reached a point in my life where I stopped taking things at face value and started thinking for myself. I reflected, unlearned, questioned, researched, and then decided what aligned with me. Faith just happens to be one of the areas where that process became very visible in my life.

Thank you for reading, as always.
With love,
Beks 💜