Richard's Story

My life before Christ

My name is Richard Zuzart, and I am a native to the country of India. In the year 2008, I had an opportunity to visit the USA while attending Tennessee Wesleyan College on a soccer scholarship. In retrospect, I knew my goals exactly. My plan was first, to play soccer to the best of abilities during my time in college. And secondly, harness my college education to launch a career that furnishes a lavish and gilded lifestyle. I wanted to immerse myself completely into worldly possessions and reap exhaustively every financial gain this country could offer – ‘An immigrant’s dream’. Conceited, selfish and vain in its very nature. A conscious dream dreamt devoid of God.

In India, I was a member of St. Joseph’s Church - A Roman Catholic church built by Jesuits. It was my home church and the place I received my sacramental baptism, communion, and confirmation. Fruitlessly even then Jesus Christ was a distant being and a meaningless relationship to pursue. His being that had no direct interaction with me and it was enjoyed as insignificant and irrelevant. I was involved with the biggest sins of them all – the rejection of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness he offers.

How I came to know Christ?

I came to know the worth of Christ’s blood in the very church offices of First Baptist, Athens. In short, I would attend church only to lay my eyes on a very sweet girl who sang in the church choir. That was my only singular goal. Once again, a plan devoid of God. You see just like Mark 5: 25 and the following verses I wanted to be blessed by casually touching Jesus’s robe but stood ashamed to confront him in his face, and submit my life to him. I wanted to be blessed exclusively by the church gathering but not by the God that appointed the gathering. My pride was big enough to eclipse the heavenly king; but a change was coming. Towards the end of 2012, I did indeed receive my blessing from attending the church gatherings. My relationship with the “choir-girl” bloomed and I was to be married to her. She was not only a gift from God but also a well-lit path that led me to him. It was during our premarital counseling that I decided to finally submit my life to Jesus. The spirit’s calling was finally bigger than my self-righteous pride. I trusted Christ and I was finally humbled. My relationship through my submission and God’s adoption made me a new creation. And, with this new creation, I bore his image. The old had passed and the new had come.

My life since coming to know Christ

My walk with Christ has given me a refined sense of joy - more genuine, truer, and more sincere even in not-so-good situations. There is a calmness when you trust Jesus. It's a confidence that no worldly possession can grant. My life’s worldview changed. God’s will overcomes and outweighs my own will. Looking back at my college days my mission was to acquire wealth, riches and everything that gratifies my fleshly desires. But on the contrary, what Jesus promises me is not a high ‘standard of living’ with fancy objects and possessions but rather a ‘quality of life’. A ‘quality of life’ that I can only enjoy through his redeeming sacrifice on the cross. He completes me and eternity awaits.