I grew up in a nice home where my family knew Jesus and went to church regularly. I knew the Bible to the point where I could even correct my teachers. However, the Bible was never something I thought much of. To me it was simply another set of lessons that I learned while growing up, similar to math or history, nothing more. As I grew up, I eventually grew to resent the Bible and the lessons I had to sit through its teachings, feeling as though I had nothing new to learn and, later, nothing I believed. Finally, I had enough, I let my friends and family know that I did not believe the Bible and I wanted to live for myself.

At this time, I went off to college. I partied, drank, smoked, and did whatever I wanted to, thinking that having fun was all that was important. I lived for myself, just how I had wanted to, and I was miserable. Everything began to feel meaningless and hollow. I began to feel hollow.

Then I heard a song. I had heard this song so many times before, when I was young, but this time I felt like I truly heard it for the first time. The song spoke of everything that I was feeling, the emptiness, the meaninglessness, of living for myself, and how only in Jesus was there meaning. I listened to the song as many times as I could, shocked that the answer to everything I was looking for was already available to me, that I had turned my back on what I wanted the most. I chose to go back to Church, and sought out Jesus for myself. For the first time I found myself fascinated by stories that used to bore me, and found new meaning in lessons I thought I knew by heart. In Jesus I found meaning and purpose, things I had sought in frivolity, and returned to his arms, in the same way the Prodigal Son did. Jesus still wanted me, even after I had rejected Him, He still loved me and wanted me to know Him.