John

I went to church all my life. My parents took me to church when I was small, and as happens more often, I was really obliged to go with them. Twice every Sunday! Believe me, that wasn’t much fun…

When he hit puberty that didn’t go well for very long. He didn’t want to come along any more, and he was rebelling against God, the church and his parents. He started to go out, fooled around with drugs, girls and partying and that continued for a few years.

For him God didn’t exist any more, at least not in the church, that’s what he thought. I didn’t see anything of God there, and those people… they looked strange at you because of your clothes of your behaviour.

But when I’m really honest I still believed that God existed. I’ve always believed that. It’s just that I had a negative image of God - I didn’t know Him. I often thought that God was only angry and that He punishes people when they don’t obey the rules. I didn’t want a God like that.

At a certain point in time my life didn’t go so well. The relationship he had had for three years ended and he had some friends who where not doing well (because of their unhealthy lifestyles). He struggled mentally and he was very unhappy. It looked all right from the outside, all the parties, the beautiful apartment, I had my own business, but on the inside… I was extremely unhappy.

That was the moment I said to God: “If You exist and You’re good, show me! If You show me, I’ll live with You. If not, I’ll quit.”

He showed me. I started to read completely new things in the Bible and friends told me that it was true. Their lives showed me it was true. Their lives were complete, whole, happy. When that happened I took a gamble, together with a friend. Together with him I prayed and said to God: “God, I don’t know You, but in my heart I do believe that You exist and that You love me and that You are in fact NOT angry with me, but that You forgive everything what I’ve done wrong. I really would like to live with You and get to know You better and better.”

That’s what happened. Now, a few years later I still think living with God is awsome. As strange as this might sound, He’s my best friend. He really loves people, more than anybody on this earth can love you. And those are not only words in the Bible. The last few years God has given me everything I need - and more. If I would start writing that down I would need a whole lot more pages.

At least I want to say to you as a reader: John has found God. But actually it’s true that long before that God had found John!