Todays Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul

[Guest guest]

Etched in my Mind

By Brookheart

It was one of life's short-notice opportunities. A schedule change

created

an opening for me to speak for Operation Starting Line. I was delighted to

receive the call that they needed me in Texas.

Operation Starting Line is a combined effort of more than a dozen

prominent

Christian ministries, including the Graham Evangelistic Association,

Prison Fellowship Ministries and Promise Keepers. The goal of this

evangelistic, discipleship and post-release program is to touch every

prisoner

in the United States within a five-year period.

The events in Texas consisted of five teams who visited thirteen

prisons.

I was part of a team of five, which included an ex-prisoner ? me. My job

was to

tell my story of transformation from a life filled with poverty, despair and

drug addiction into a successful businessman.

My mother raised three children on a meager, monthly welfare check

while my

father served time in a maximum-security prison. Our house was filled with

rats, mice and roaches. My environment led me to a life of crime in a

struggle

to survive. I recounted how Jesus transformed me from a Class X felon into

a

success.

On Friday we did two shows at a minimum-security prison. The next day,

we

went to a maximum-security facility. While we were setting up in the yard,

the

chaplain told us that if a riot broke out we were to go to the brick wall

and

put our backs against it and let the riot police do their jobs.

The unit was filled with boys, eleven to nineteen years old, who were

serving thirty- to forty-year sentences. During the show, someone started a

fire in the kitchen. When we returned two days later, we heard that many

guards

had quit because it was so dangerous.

We went to " the hole " (the administrative segregation unit) to speak to

the

guys in their cells. There I met a heavily tattooed seventeen-year-old

" gang-

banger " serving forty " ag " years. That meant he had an aggravated sentence

and

had to serve about thirty years before he could see the parole board.

In the hole, I sat on the floor and read the Bible with a

sixteen-year-old

gang-banger serving a ten-year sentence. When I asked him why he joined a

gang,

he looked at me like I was crazy and said, " Everyone I know is in a gang. "

I

looked into his sad eyes and realized that only God could heal the hurts in

this

young man's heart. The incredible waste of a valuable life overwhelmed me.

I

asked him if he would like to accept Jesus into his heart. He eagerly

responded, " Yes, " and we prayed together. It was one of the most moving

moments

I had ever experienced.

On April 9, my team asked me to do " the close. " Afterward, I told them

that it was my birthday and there was nothing else that I'd rather be doing.

Then I thanked them and began to walk away. As I turned my head toward the

crowd, I was humbled to see the inmates, who were on their feet, blessing me

with a standing ovation. The men were touched by my simple, heartfelt

compassion. I realized that my job was simply to tell them my story and let

the

Lord take care of the rest.

A young man named Steve, came up to me after the show and showed me the

scars on his hands where rats had bitten him as a child. He had previously

accepted the Lord, but struggled with his daily walk. My heart was breaking

for

him.

As I reflect on these inspiring events, I think of the inmates' hearts

that

were touched by the hope that my life represents. Twenty-three years ago, I

really was a seventeen-year-old convicted Class X felon. Moments before I

cried

out for the Lord's help, I was lying in my bunk, thinking about killing a

prison

guard.

Now the pain of yesterday is wiped away. I am happily married, live in

a

new house and drive a fine car. My life is blessed and radically

transformed.

Steadfast hope is a driving force that will keep prisoners seeking the face

of

God, giving him time to answer their prayers and implement his will in their

lives.

At those events, Jesus touched many lives ? including mine. My heart

will

forever see the faces of those inmates light up when I explained where I

have

been and where the Lord continues to take me. Their faces are etched in my

mind

forever.