You have been in how many countries? This was the response of a businessman that I had been talking with. He had asked me earlier when he discovered what my job was how many countries I had been in. My response was more than a hundred.
But wait this is not where the story begins, nor is it the real issue that I wish to discuss. I'll come back to that later. The story I wish to tell began more than 40 years ago. I was a successful businessman with a wonderful beautiful wife, 2 fine intelligent children, a large house and all the material things that most any young couple would desire. However, I was rarely content with my life for there always seemed to be something missing or I could say there was a big void within me. Through conversations with different individuals I reached the conclusion that the void within me was a spiritual one. I had been busy trying to fill it with material things and other lavish activities and had not been successful. On the other hand I was at a loss as to what to do about my dilemma.
Through my wife and some new friends of hers I discovered the solution to my problem; for I discovered how I could know God personally. I discovered that He wished for that void to be filled in my life and that could happen if I established a personal relationship with His son Jesus Christ. So, to me I did the obvious thing by committing my life to Christ. To my personal delight I gradually discovered that the void had been filled and that I had a new found peace in my life.
After several years this decision resulted in a totally new direction for our family. We decided to become a part of a very large mission organization. Some while later I was asked to become one of it's mission leaders and years later to eventually assume the responsibility of it's international directorship.
Life as a businessman was exciting, but nothing compared with the life we were privileged to share with thousands of our staff around the world. We were given the opportunity to be involved with wonderful people, from 195 countries, establishing people movements in most every country consisting of those who chose to become followers of Jesus. Most of these were people at one point had the same spiritual void in their lives as I did. They successfully filled theirs as I had done by getting to know God personally.
This brings me back to my conversation with the businessman. I had told him previously that it had been my experience, over the past forty plus years that people in most every country of the world were interested in spiritual matters. This gentleman admitted that he too experienced that same spiritual need.
When I committed my life to Christ I discovered a peace that I had not had before, and a new purpose and meaning for my life. Needless to say my wife had already made that discovery in her life shortly before I did.