Filling the God-Shaped Hole

Someone once said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the creator." I’ve brought a dad and husband named Jo'mel Powell on the program to share his story of how he found his identity and purpose.

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Transcript - Filling the God-Shaped Hole

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Someone once said, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man that cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator."

I've brought a doubt on the program who understands this truth well and he will share his story with us in just a moment, so don't go anywhere.

Welcome to the Fatherhood Challenge, a movement to awaken and inspire fathers everywhere, to take great pride in their role,

and a challenge society to understand how important fathers are to the stability and culture of their family's environment. Now here's your host, Jonathan Guerrero.

Greetings, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm joined by a dad named Jamel Powell who is here to share his story of how he found his identity and purpose.

Jamel, thank you so much for being on the Fatherhood Challenge.

I appreciate you having me here and you are a blessing to me for allowing me on your platform.

Jamel, let's jump right into your story and journey of how you found your identity and purpose in life.

I want to say around the age of 19, that first year in high school, I was just trying to find my way.

So, you know, I thought I could find my way, you know, by giving me a girlfriend and by finding ways to make money hustling in the streets,

you know, being around the wrong type of crowds, but I want to say within that first year of high school, I found out quickly

that the road that I was going was in the route. I found myself in a lot of gyms and a lot of hard situations

and then a lot of confrontations with a lot of people that was much more powerful than me.

And they let me turn around and get down and pray and call on God and then being lost out here trying to find my way

is what made me get down on my knees and pray because it was rough for a young man in my neighborhood to make it, you know.

I'm from the city of Detroit, Michigan. A lot of our young men in Detroit, Michigan, we are influenced by our environment.

And our environment is full of people that sell drugs, you know, people that commit violent acts,

and even gang culture to a certain degree. So, when we not getting what we looking for at home, we look to these things,

to get the love that we looking for. But I thank God because, you know, I was trying to sell marijuana.

I got caught in a bad jam, you know, trying to let that lifestyle. I realized it wasn't for me because

you have to be an aggressive individual to be a hustler, you know. You have to be a violent individual to survive

because you constantly get tested over and over again and you have to be assertive.

And I realized I didn't want to go that route. Through those struggles and trials, God revealed himself to me.

And when God revealed himself to me, I turned away from all of that and I never went back.

Through all my journey, I probably have struggled with sins and I have backslap,

sitting multiple times, but I have never turned my back on God and I have never went to that lifestyle.

And when I say I never turned my back on God, I mean, like completely given up on God and completely lost

God out of my mind because I had many, many bumps along the road. I got in the church