Changing Lives

I had two glimpses into changing lives today, and I don't want to forget.

I spent the afternoon at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, celebrating with 20 women who finished their first semester in the new Christian Ministry certificate program that NOBTS is offering there. From the surface, it could have looked like the end of any semester with any group of women. But considering the setting, the surface doesn't begin to tell the story.

The smiles were broader. The encouragement more sincere. The sense of accomplishment brightened the room. These ladies are all offenders with sentences of 15 years or more. Let that sink in. For the next 15 years and beyond, they will live, breathe, and age behind the walls of LCIW. No paroles. No pardons. Incarceration. In 15 years, I have no idea of what turns my life will have taken. But these ladies have one certainty: they will be imprisoned.

But despite what seems like such a hopeless situation and setting, they smiled broadly, encouraged deeply, and celebrated proudly that they had finished FOUR seminary classes (six hours) on their way to this 18-hour certificate . . . which is merely the first step to the Associates degree . . . and then on to the Bachelors.

To close the celebration, we stood in a circle -- 20 students, 3 teachers, Rhonda, and me -- to pray. We started with Debi Sharkey and went around the entire circle with all but one lady praying. Two prayers stood out to me. The one that thanked God for the people who laid the groundwork for this program to happen. And the one that asked God to continue renewing their minds as they studied and learned. Changing lives. Not the end result, but an adventure in progress.

Second thing was a phone call from Aaron tonight, telling us that he shared his testimony with the youth group at South Parkway tonight. We asked him what he shared. He told them he came from the most church-y background you could come from, but he still took the easy way out. He said taking drugs and selling drugs is the easy way, but that it's hard to live out the Bible. He challenged them to not take the easy way. Yes, THIS is a life that is changing.

On Sunday he repeated what he had told me before . . . that when he seeks after God and keeps this relationship the main thing, life comes together in a good way. But when he leaves God out of things, he messes up . . . in school, with drugs, etc. He called what he is learning at Teen Challenge "a cure." He pointed out that he is learning how to live . . . more than just learning how to fight the temptations of drugs and alcohol (which he said AA does) . . . he is learning how to really live.

11 weeks last Saturday. I will celebrate this changing life as well!

'Down' doesn't mean 'out'

I want to write this down before I forget it . . . before I forget how encouraged I was on Tuesday when Shaun and Ken were among the ten or so honored during the NOBTS Celebration of Excellence. Two men who have publicly shared of previous drug addictions that passionately defined their pasts but, once behind them, drove them to a different type of excellence. Both of these men desire to serve God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. And God honored them in return.

God, thanks for this real life object lesson of the way you make all things new. Sometimes I get scared that this time in TC is just a 'time out' for SAJ, and not a real life change. I get scared because so many just can't leave their addictions behind despite the best intentions. I get scared because it's so difficult for him to submit to the authority of the place and the program. I get scared because I've been disappointed so many times before.

I imagine that Shaun's family was scared he wouldn't succeed at recovery. Or maybe that Ken would fall back into his old ways. But they haven't. Instead, they've turned their eyes toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

SAJ can too. Because 'down' doesn't mean 'out.'