I woke up one Saturday morning and realized I could buy anything I wanted, and yet it wouldn’t fill a void within me that needed to be filled. I couldn’t describe that void at the time, but I now see that I needed to live for a purpose greater than my own security or happiness. When I had become a Christian fifteen years earlier, I did not have wealth, but I had a newfound relationship with Jesus. I’d had what I would call a Damascus road experience. And now I realized that all I wanted was the meaning and assurance of that close dependence on him again. I’d lost my first love. So I prayed to God and begged him for Jesus to be my first love again, and that I didn’t care what it took. I realized with a sinking feeling it would take everything. And yet I was willing if that’s what it took to have that relationship again.

Listen to a conversation about what it’s like to leave behind wealth.