Deceived By The American Dream

FINALLY HEARING THE HARD THINGS JESUS SAID

BY MIKE MAZYCK

STRUNG OUT ON A COUCH...when a Visitor arrives!

There were only two things I cared about as a teenager: surfing and getting high. On this particular south Florida afternoon, the waves were flat. That left me withonly one option. I had one pill of ecstasy, a bag of weed, and the house to myself. Not sure why I’d be having my own little private party that afternoon, as I had nothing to celebrate; I was only 19 years old and had just been arrested for the second time in my life. That arrest was a violation of my probation for the first arrest, which only compounded my problems. My life was heading in the wrong direction quickly.

But that afternoon the party had a different ending. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting on the couch in my living room, strung out, and in one of the most shameful states of my entire life. As the drugs wore off, I began thinking about the embarrassment of a man I had become, and the direction my life seemed to be heading. These thoughts led to me asking myself some difficult questions about the meaning and purpose of life, and where I had gone so wrong. But as I contemplated these things, I remember becoming aware that something strange was happening; I had answers. The answers were clear and obvious, as if they had been right in front of me the whole time. My eyes were being opened.

That afternoon, in a period of about 90 minutes, it was as if every question I had about life was answered. All the seeds of truth my mother had planted during my early childhood years were being watered. I now realize the Holy Spirit had joined me that afternoon. I sat down on that couch blind. But when I arose, I could see. I remember getting in my car the next morning and looking at the stack of CDs in my console, and thinking to myself, I don’t like any of this music anymore.

GOD – A GIRL – AND AN EDUCATION

One year later I was enrolled in Bible college at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas. I had no intentions of going into the ministry; I just knew I had a desire to study the Bible, to know God more, and C.F.N.I. seemed to be where He was leading me. I’m certain He was testing me also, to see if I’d be willing to lay down my idol of surfing and follow Him.

I graduated C.F.N.I. with a Certificate of Practical Theology. Around that same time, I met my beautiful bride, Tiffany, and we were hitched one year later. Butnow I had a problem; I had to figure out how to provide for this girl. I didn’t have the money or desire to go to college, and I still didn’t want to go into the ministry. So, I did what any normal person would do. I decided to become a real estate agent. Eight hundred bucks and eight weeks later, I had all the building blocks of something great: God, a wife, and a real estate license! Time to start building. So that’s what I did. I was young, newly married, and ambitious. Tiffany and I began building a family, and pursuing what I think most would refer to as the American Dream.

THE AMERICAN DREAM ...making babies and making money!

Success in real estate came quickly. I sold 50 homes my first full year in the business and won Rookie of the Year in my brokerage. Life was going well. Tiffany and I were making babies and making money. I think we would have been considered a typical middle-class Christian family in the Bible belt of America. We had a house, two cars, two kids, and went on two vacations a year. I did my quiet times in the morning. We gave our ten percent faithfully. We went to church on Sunday (when it was convenient) and lived a moral and upstanding life. What else is there?

Fast forward about 20 years and it’s October of 2020. The kids are older. The house and cars have gotten a whole lot nicer. I now own my own brokerage, and I’ve got about 100 agents working for me. We’re on track to sell nearly 1100 homes, and I’m about to make more money than I ever dreamed I would make in one year. While the rest of the world has shut down for COVID, my wife and I somehow manage to get away for 6 vacations (don’t judge me). Oh, and to top it all off, I’m just under 6% body fat. We still go to church when it’s convenient. I still do my quiet times. We still give our ten percent. 2020 was the year I realized I was no longer chasing the American dream; I had achieved it. In October I decided to take the rest of the year off. After all, I had earned it.

SOMETHING IS WRONG!... and the darkness sets in.

That time off marked the beginning of what would become the darkest and most difficult season of my life. As I thought about the life I had built, I came to the realization that I had achieved everything I had ever set out to achieve in life, and yet I was discontent and unfulfilled. Something wasn’t right. Something seemed to be missing.

Nevertheless, the new year was approaching, and I knew my time off would be coming to an end. So, I did what I always did; I thought about the upcoming year and began to list out another set of goals to conquer. But I quickly realized that something was wrong; I was finding no motivation to achieve any of those goals. The money, the toys, the vacations, the body, none of it excited me anymore; I had already attained those things, and I knew they wouldn’t satisfy the void. Yet I didn’t have a choice because I had created a life, and a business, and an image, that now had to be maintained.

As I approached 2021, it felt like the pressure was building with each passing week. I felt like everyone in my life was expecting to see a renewed and invigorated version of Mike, that was ready to crush another set of goals. But that Mike was nowhere to be found. Instead, with each passing week, the exhaustion and emptiness seemed to be growing. I found myself with a complete inability to move forward and no answers in sight, and yet my deadline to get back to work was getting closer and closer. I was now beginning to feel trapped — by the very life I had built. The weight of the life I had created was crushing me. I felt like it was suffocating me.

THE EXAM BEGINS

As I did when I was 19,I looked at my life and began to ask myself some questions. But this time the questions were much more difficult, and the answers didn’t come nearly as easily. I had read the Bible; I knew what it said. And I knew something was terribly wrong. There was a life the scriptures say was available to me, that I was not experiencing. As far as I could tell, that Book said I was supposed to be walking in a peace that surpasses all understanding, a joy that is unspeakable. It said the believer has true contentment available to them. But when I looked back over the last 20 years of my Christian walk, I did not find these things. I saw a man whose peace, and joy, and contentment were constantly rising and falling based on the number of pending transactions he had on the books, the amount of money he had in the bank account, how much body fat he saw in the mirror, and how far away the next vacation was. My tree was not producing genuine fruit (Galatians 5:22–23), and I knew what Jesus said about trees that don’t produce fruit (Matthew 7:19). What had started with some questions was now turning into a full-scale self-examination.

MORE QUESTIONS....and the HARD THINGS HE SAID!

As I continued to wrestle with the difficult questions, I found myself hearing two very different voices in my head... To hear what the voices said, and finish this article, visit MikeMazyck.com