"I was raised a Seventh-day Adventist, but I kind of resented it. Everything was kind of trite and I really didn't feel it, and I even began to resent God for all the misery, hatred, and corruption in the world. Why would He create all this and just leave us to die!"

Those are words every parent hates to hear, words that call question on Sabbath morning dashes to church, on the extra hours worked to pay for church school, and even the family worships where it was hard to keep the kids quiet.

I heard those words this summer from an Indiana teenager, Matt Stokes, on a church-building trip in Ecuador.

"I thought I was just going to have fun with my life and then die, and that would be it. I got into a lot of stuff I shouldn't have, and my priorities were all screwed up. Then I got into some trouble and realized this wasn't where I wanted my life to be."

Those are words parents hope to hear, words we pray for as we bail our teenager out of jail, words that offer a tiny promise of turnaround and new hope.

"I started thinking seriously, and then the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart to read the Bible and see if God was really what my parents had made Him out to be."

Matt's life came to a "rock bottom situation" where he had nothing else to do except think and read. He chose to read the Bible. Just the choice his parents, teachers, and pastor were praying he would make.

"I had a lot of time to read, so I read Romans 8 every day and it slowly changed my life. When I read the Bible wanting to get truth from it, I felt something different. I started surrendering my life to God, and everything began getting better and better."

In the last year, Matt's life has moved to where he now has "more than enough" to do. He has finished high school, preached on three continents, and is living the peace he found in Romans.

"What I love the most is the joy and the freedom that I got from God. Teenagers, for the most part, live hedonistic lifestyles, and I have a burden to show everybody I meet the joy and contentment you can get from a life lived in God's will."

"This resurrection life you've received from God is not a timid grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a 'What's next, Papa?'" (Romans 8:15 The Message)

Dick Duerksen is the official "storyteller" for Maranatha Volunteers International. Readers may contact Dick at dduerksen@maranatha.org.