| God’s hand was on me all
along: Nagma |
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POPULAR actress Nagma
opened up about her faith and mission in her life for
the first time to the media in an exclusive interview
with The Christian Messenger.
This newspaper’s founding editor Robin Sam spoke to her
for close to five hours in an exhaustive interview
concerning her faith, the recent issue over her
testimony at Nalumavadi in Tamil Nadu, the rising
violence against Christians, her personal life and plans
for the future. Excerpts:
When did you come to
realize the saving power of Jesus Christ?
I was born on Christmas to a Muslim mother and
a Hindu father. I went to a convent school from
childhood. I was exposed to Christianity from a young
age. I went to Mount Mary Convent School in Bandra,
Mumbai. There, Mass was a routine feature. I always
thought I am very special to God because I was born on
Dec 25th - perhaps because the world celebrated the day.
Even though I was not a believer then, I still enjoyed a
constant companionship and relationship with Jesus
Christ but never really mentioned this as it would have
seemed odd then.
A bit later in life, I came across a book called
‘Conversations with God.’ That confirmed to me that the
power that was speaking to me all along was God Himself.
Now when I look back, I feel that God’s hand was
strongly upon me all along even though I hadn’t realized
it then.
As God is just and fair, He has given us a free will to
decide and make our choices whether good or bad because
of His mercy and compassion.
There was a time in my life when things were going on
really well. Yet, there was this big vacuum. There was
no all-encompassing peace though life was busy and my
job competitive. It went on like this for several years.
After 15 years of my career, I started feeling the
futility of it all and began asking myself questions
like ‘Why am I here?’, ‘What’s God’s plan for me in my
life?’ and ‘What’s the purpose of my existence?’ I asked
myself these questions when I was doing really well in
life just like how King David felt even when he had
everything going his way.
Since I was spiritually inclined I read a lot of books
in that genre. I also started practicing meditation. I
was teaching Art of Living for nearly 12 years. But
Jesus continued to intrigue me. Since one of my aunties
was a Christian, I kept urging her to tell me more about
Christ. In the year 2000, in one such discussion, I said
my salvation prayer.
Like it took the Israelites 40 years to reach the
promised land that should have been covered in just 11
days I took nearly about five years to submit completely
to the will of God. Just like Jonah, I was going on my
own trip.
But in 2006, I became ill. I had a viral fever that the
doctors weren’t able to diagnose. I had high temperature
and was hospitalized. That’s when a Punjabi guy in my
fraternity who was married to a Christian woman visited
me and gave a CD. It contained a sermon titled ‘Freedom
from fear’ by Brother Johnson, an evangelist in Goa. For
the next six months I kept listening to the CD. Like the
Bible says: ‘Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the
Word of God.’ After six months, I told myself: ‘Now, I
want to read the Word.’ I began with the New Testament.
I told God: ‘I am going to read your Word. Help me and
be my teacher.’
While reading the New Testament, I realized the
importance of baptism and also of joining a church.
Therefore, I immediately joined Pastor Shekhar
Kalyanpur’s New Life Fellowship in Juhu, Mumbai. I took
baptism on Jan 4. Since 2007 was a year of rest I
decided to take a break from films and continued my
Bible study fervently.
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