There Has to Be More to Life

I grew up like most American boys. The thing I cared about most was sport, and then doing well at school, and then getting attention from girls. That’s what I cared about. And I was good at those things. And when I got to high school, around age 16 or so, I remember watching the television, and a man was giving an interview to an athlete in America, his name is Tom Brady. He is like Messi of American football. The best. He had just won his 3rd championship, which is extremely rare. The interviewer asked him, you know, what is next in your life, what are you preparing for next, you won all these championships. He’s still very young, he’s got many years to play. Tom Brady said I have won all these things, but there has to be more to life. All those championships, all that money, and all that attention did not give him the satisfaction in his heart that he wanted.

And so there I was, in high school, and that was my goal – to be like him. And I realized even if I got to the same spot he was, the best at my sport, the most recognized, I would still feel empty inside, because that could not satisfy me. And so around that time I guess I realized I can still enjoy sport and school, but there’s more to life. I need to find it out. And around that time, a friend invited me to study the Bible. I started reading, and I was reading about Jesus, and reading about him was kind of like when you eat a good meal, you want to eat more and more because it’s so good. But a bad meal, you want to eat more because it wasn’t satisfying. And so reading the Bible and reading about Jesus was like a good meal for my soul. The more I read, the more and more I wanted. And I realized that this was the answer to my problem.

There’s a story in the Bible about a man named Paul. He was a Jew, he lived around the time that Jesus lived, and he had a similar dilemma, he had all of these successes for his culture, all these things he could be proud about, but he said I consider all of those trash and rubbish compared to knowing Jesus. I decided then that that is what I wanted to do, because I had seen the same thing. So since that moment I have gone from anxious and unsatisfied to at peace and satisfied in my heart. That’s how God through Jesus has changed my life.

Since then, there’s still times I might get anxious, or not to be at peace, but God is still there for me. For instance, in the Fall, my wife’s purse was stolen out of our car, and it had all of her identification, because we were newly married and she was changing from her last name to my last name. We were very worried because someone could steal her identity. That night we prayed to God. “God, please, will you return her purse to us with all of her identification.” We prayed that on a Monday night, and on Wednesday, a man on Facebook messaged us and said, “I found Rebecca’s purse. I did not know what to do with it, I gave it to the police. If you go there, you can get her purse.” We were so happy it was found. We went to the police, got her purse and all of her identification was in the purse.