Satisfied

By Sean Yates

Suffering from a divided family at the age of four, a huge emotional void in my life began to set in. This feeling of anger, misunderstanding, helplessness, and loneliness began shortly after my parents got divorced. I began to distance myself from everyone in my life. I also had no desire to connect with new people or engage in conversation with family or friends. I became a quiet, non-confrontational young man.

I focused all of my time on sports to get away from a tornado of emotion that I was suppressing every day. Sports controlled the way I acted, interacted, and even the way I talked.

Never Understood

Even though I was going to church and called myself a believer, I never truly understood what it meant to be saved. I wanted to know what it meant to be saved and wanted to know God’s love for me. But I never had someone in my life who showed me what it meant. I started looking for other ways to feel satisfied in the world rather than looking to Christ. Inappropriate relationships, sports, and work became the main focus in my life.

Everything I did in the world only made me feel empty inside. I was lost and looking for anything to satisfy me.

What I Was Missing

I was miserable until a friend invited me to The Porch. It was in that evening that I understood what I was missing. That night something changed in me. I no longer wanted to live for the world. I couldn't explain it at first but as I began to get more involved in church I saw that God was working in my life. God was changing my heart and my mind.

I no longer cared about the pleasures of the world; I wanted to live for Christ instead.

I still have a long journey in front of me. I am a work in progress, but it feels amazing to be living for Christ. I now know that God loves me so much that He sent His son to die for me. That there is nothing I can do to get into heaven. Jesus did it all for me. He died for my sins and said it is done. Nothing can separate me from God’s love.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. – John 3:16-21