A few days ago Todd Adkins was tweeting excerpts from Dave and my book, Finding Your Way Back to God. He referenced the first of the 5 Awakenings: The Awakening to Longing. Moments later, I received a tweet message from someone asking me if those who “seem to have it all” experience this first awakening…Do they really feel like something is missing when they seem to have everything anyone could ever want?  I was reminded of my friend, Chris, who recently found his way back to God. This is an excerpt from his story:

My name is Chris, and I am in the process of finding my way back to God. I say finding my way back as though I once was with God and then drifted away, it really didn’t happen that way for me. I was born into an Irish Catholic family in Northern New Jersey, I was Christened at birth, received my Holy Communion in 2nd grade, my Confirmation in 8th grade and I’ve always considered myself a Catholic, a man of faith.

Church was a place I went on Sundays, okay some Sundays and major religious holidays. It was an obligation, not something I necessarily enjoyed or looked forward to, but who really looks forward to going to church? Mostly, I went out of guilt.

So I’ve always tried to live a good life, always tried to do the right thing.  I have a loving wife, a wonderful daughter, a successful career, a nice home, some money in the bank.  I’ve had my share of disappointments, my mom died in a tragic car accident when I was 25, I went through a divorce at age 40, but I kept an optimistic outlook, worked hard and have done the right things which I believed was the reason why, generally speaking, things have worked out pretty good thus far. I fell victim to a belief that many of us in the U.S. get sucked into. We live in a country that affords us the freedoms and the economic environment to make us believe that we are in control of our own destiny.  If you get a good education, work hard and get a little lucky, you can have the American dream.

I’m 50 now. Probably more than halfway done.  I’ve worked hard to get here. Many would say that I’ve achieved the American dream, and yet there’s something missing. There’s something big missing. So I’m on a search to find out what it is.  And I think I’m on to it.