gina waegele
Child of God
From the outside, Gina Waegele looked as if she had her life together. Majoring in television news and video communication, she worked for Colorado State University’s TV station, winning an Emmy Award for best student informational program and an award from the National College Broadcast Association for best newscast. Gina was beautiful, ambitious, and talented, and she soon anchored the newscasts for a small town’s network affiliate as well as competed in beauty pageants. At twenty-one, she appeared to be on the fast track for a glamorous career.
Yet below the surface, memories haunted Gina. Her father had died suddenly when she was only thirteen, setting off a downward spiral of relationships in Gina’s life and the lives of those she loved.
As a teenager, Gina suffered as she watched her older sister Christine’s marriage end in a painful divorce. Christine was Gina’s mentor and friend, and even though the sisters lived in different states, they shared an unusually close relationship. When Christine met and married her second husband, Gina celebrated with her. There was no hint that anything was wrong. Yet just six months after the wedding Christine was dead, the victim of domestic violence. Her husband strangled her to get her life-insurance money.
Still reeling from the loss of her sister, Gina entered college and found herself in a series of her own unhealthy relationships. Just months after Christine’s death, Gina’s possessive, controlling boyfriend beat her so badly that she wound up in the hospital. Recognizing the danger she was in, Gina cut ties with that boyfriend, only to fall into other hurtful relationships.
Her dating problems and an unresolved anger toward her sister’s murderer forced Gina into a deep depression even as she received multiple broadcasting awards and recognition. By her senior year of college, Gina knew something had to change drastically. She couldn’t keep living with the bitterness and pain that filled her heart.
Although Gina was raised in a Christian home and attended church as a child, she did not have a personal understanding of what it meant to live for Christ. In her heart, she thought that because she was making bad choices and not living the way a Christian should, God could never love her or forgive her. But when Gina reached the end of her own strength and her depression made her question whether she wanted to live or die, she finally cried out to God. “Show me that You’re there. Show me that You’re real!” she begged one night.
God did not answer her with a flash of light or an audible voice, but not long after that night, Gina felt a gentle tugging in her heart to find Christian roommates. She didn’t know it yet, but God was working in her life.
Gina moved in with a few strong Christian friends, and they invited her to church. Still not sure what God was doing, she agreed to go. One service changed her life. Gina felt as if everything that happened that night, from the music to the message about the forgiveness of God, was written specifically for her.
Gina’s struggle with bitterness, especially toward the man who had killed her sister, had been eating at her. She cried herself to sleep at night and lost her temper over the smallest things. Deeply rooted anger controlled Gina’s life, making it impossible for her to understand forgiveness, especially the forgiveness of God.
Yet Gina felt God whisper to her heart, “You have to forgive him.” She struggled against the idea. How could anyone ask her to do that, after what the man did to her family? But God was persistent, and finally Gina understood how her anger and hate consumed her. She began to pray, and slowly the bitterness faded and she was able to let go and truly forgive. Not only did Gina find peace from the tragedy, but she also caught a clear glimpse of God’s forgiveness. If she, a flawed human being, could forgive someone who hurt her and the people around her so much, the Creator of the universe could obviously find forgiveness for the things she had done. After so many years, Gina finally understood the message of the Cross, and it changed her whole life.
A few months after Gina recommitted her life to God, she faced another challenge of faith. She competed in the 1997 Miss Colorado pageant and won the title of First Runner-Up. It was a great honor—Gina had never placed in the top five in any pageant—but it was only the beginning. Six months after the contest, the pageant board of directors took the crown away from the reigning Miss Colorado and called on Gina to serve out the rest of the year. Gina accepted the responsibility. Acting as Miss Colorado gave her the opportunity to travel across the state and talk about her platform issue—domestic violence awareness—and share her own story.
Life as the new Miss Colorado wasn’t easy. The original pageant winner sued to get her title back, and the media constantly pulled Gina into the controversy, often trying to portray her as the villain. Two weeks before Gina’s term would have ended, the court sided in favor of the original pageant winner and instructed Gina to give the title and responsibilities back. As quickly as it started, her reign as Miss Colorado ended.
God had a plan for this as well. In her final press conference, Gina was asked if she would try to sue for the title. Looking calm and confident, Gina answered, “My identity is not in a crown; it’s not in a car; it’s not in money; and it’s not in the title of Miss Colorado. My identity is in my faith in God.” In that moment, Gina realized the full impact of her statement. She was indeed a child of God, and that was more important than anything else she would do or anyone she would date. It was not important whether she was someone’s girlfriend or a TV star.
Gina considered this new perspective carefully as she considered what to do next in her life. After she graduated college, she made a radical decision to leave her job in television and dedicate her life to helping young people develop healthy relationships centered in Christ.
Gina turned down high-paying corporate jobs, choosing instead to work with a small nonprofit organization called Friends First. As the national program director, Gina travels across the country, speaking to high-school students in public and private schools about abstinence and healthy dating relationships. She continues to share her story, with all of its highs and lows, and whenever she can, she includes her favorite Bible verses, James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Although Gina wasn’t always sure how to pay her bills in the beginning, God always provided for her needs, showing her over and over again that this was the ministry He called her to from the beginning. All of her struggles, all of her experiences have led her to where she is today, where she can speak confidently about who she is, and who we all are, as children of God.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
(Ephesians 2:8-9)