Story of the Week: Calling the Question

Ryan began his journey asking questions about whether God could really be good in a world filled with pain and suffering. He now finds himself living out a very different question: What does it look like to fully trust and follow the God he once doubted?

Hundreds of high school seniors flooded the halls of Discovery Canyon High School during the fall of 2025. Among them was one young man who joined the frequent conversations about senior activities and post-graduation plans. But beneath the everyday back-and-forth of those chats, there were deeper questions and truer answers stirring in Ryan Metzger’s heart.

A LIST OF QUESTIONS

Ryan grew up with an awareness of God, but for most of his life he carried unanswered questions about who God is and what He’s like. Ryan shares, “My view on God when I was growing up was that He loves anyone who follows Him and hates whoever doesn't. This was because it seemed that all the people who believed in Him got all the things they wanted.”

In Ryan’s teenage years, his misunderstanding of God and his growing list of unanswered questions led him to proclaim that he was an atheist. Ryan was convinced that God couldn’t exist in a world filled with so much pain and suffering. And if God did exist, Ryan wondered, how could He be good and allow these things to take place?

During his senior year, something began to shift in Ryan. Rather than keeping his questions to himself, he began bringing them into the open. He looked for opportunities to debate with Christians, hoping to disprove their beliefs. Ryan shares, “I often approached those conversations with a closed heart instead of seeking the truth of who God is.”

Yet the people Ryan debated did not shy away from his questions. Instead, they lovingly and boldly engaged him in conversation. Among them was his girlfriend, who invited Ryan to come visit Woodmen.

SEEKING AN ANSWER

One weekend after a worship service at Woodmen Monument, Ryan and his girlfriend approached a pastor and arranged a time to meet. During their several-hour conversation, Ryan brought up questions about God, religion, Jesus, sin, brokenness, God’s sovereignty and free will. Throughout the conversation, Ryan’s heart remained resistant and he continued looking for reasons not to believe.

A few weeks later, Ryan and his girlfriend found themselves in a heated disagreement that became a pivotal turning point in his journey. “I felt so bad that I asked for forgiveness and I got more than just my girlfriend’s voice that night. I heard Christ telling me that He forgives me” Ryan explains.

In that moment, something changed. For the first time, Ryan’s heart truly opened. He made the decision to put his faith and trust in Jesus. From that moment forward, Ryan committed to fully obey whatever Christ asked him to do.

That commitment was soon put into action.

One weekend, Pastor Josh preached from Luke 10, a passage that recounts Jesus sending out the 72. Convicted by the scripture and the call to “get on mission,” Ryan shared the gospel and prayed with a stranger in a local coffee shop. “That’s what we are supposed to do as Christians,” Ryan boldly states.

LIVING THE QUESTION

Ryan also felt the conviction that he needed to obey Jesus’ command to be baptized—an act of obedience to publicly declare his new life in Jesus. The timing was tight: Ryan was preparing to move overseas, and there was not a scheduled Woodmen baptism weekend before his departure.

Ryan reached out to one of our campus pastors and asked if there was a way he could be baptized before leaving the country. Arrangements were made, and on May 24, 2026 — also Ryan’s birthday — he was baptized in a hot tub by the same Woodmen pastor who had first met with him months earlier.

At his baptism, Ryan shared Proverbs 3:5 and explained, “trusting the Lord with all your heart means surrendering every fear, plan and worry to Him daily. Full surrender is choosing His will over your own and trusting Him even when you don't understand the path.”

Today, Ryan is studying abroad and has found a local church where he is plugged in. He is daily seeking the Lord through prayer, reading scripture and sharing the gospel with others.

Ryan began his journey asking questions about whether God could really be good in a world filled with pain and suffering. He now finds himself living out a very different question: What does it look like to fully trust and follow the God he once doubted?

Ryan’s story is still being written. And wherever God leads him next, he is learning to walk forward with faith, surrender and a willingness to obey.

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