Dean Sweaney

My Journey

I have lived a very different life than most people. I remember as a kid wearing hand me down clothes that didn't fit. For a time, we lived in the woods in a log cabin with no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. In the evening, the Bible would be taken out and read aloud by the light of a kerosene lantern. My mom and step father would do their best to interpret what it meant. Disagreements between the two would make this practice short lived.

I joined the Army at 18 and lived a wild life. Sometimes I even tried some of the harder drugs, but I soon realized that this was a very lonely life.

There was something missing, but I didn't know what. I assumed it must be a wife and kids so I set my sites on getting out of the service and settling down. In Dec. 1989, I was married. But in Feb 1990, I lost my sister in a car wreck. She was 16. This started the questions in my mind: What is the point of life? I mean, she was here for sixteen short years, then she was gone. What's the point? I felt so empty, The emptiness was back.

So, I thought I needed to have children to fill the void. A year or so later my wife became pregnant. I began to wonder, how I am going to give this child purpose when I don't know what the purpose is myself?

God continued to reveal himself to me, this time, through a man who came into my life. Jay never batted an eye at our drunken birthday parties and such. He would just continue being my friend. He invited me to a home bible study course (because we wouldn't go to church) and that is where I was saved. The Holy Spirit filled me, gave me knowledge of the purpose of life, a peace that I had never felt before, and an understanding of all the things that never made sense to me. This all came in the course of a few days. It was very overwhelming and I have never been the same since.

My walk with the Lord has had its challenges. My wife divorced me because she didn't want to be a Christian. I lost almost every friend I had before that time because I had become a Christian. The strange thing is though...I was never alone through any of this. I trusted God to make my life right. And he has.

That void, that I had in my life, has never returned. Even when I lost the things that I once believed would fill it...God is continually changing things in my life. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesn't. but it's always done to make me and my life better. God has given me a new wife with 2 wonderful step kids, and two more little girls of our own. He has also replaced those old friends with new ones, that know Him, and understand me (well for the most part). I have learned what it is like to love everyone. Even those who are a little different. I know what it feels like when people laugh at you, mock you, and point at you because your clothes don't fit, or you are a little different. I was treated that way once before too. And through my life there were many lessons that were taught to me so that I could serve God and love people the way he intended for me to.

OH! And the purpose of life...is to love God, then everyone else. The love is supplied in abundance from God himself. After you get that, the rest comes naturally.

If you don't already have this awesomely fulfilling love in your life...please ask me about it. I would give anything for the opportunity to tell you more about it and how it was all made possible through Jesus Christ. It is much simpler than you think, and more fulfilling than you can imagine.

My name is Dean Sweany and that is my story...so far

When your way doesn't work...Try His!