Wasteland, Prison, and Jesus

From Jacksonville, I headed back to my hometown of Burlington, NC, got a job, and started living the bachelor lifestyle of parties, parties, and more parties. The next two years became a blur as I went from one living arrangement to another, headed steadily downhill.

Eventually I found myself out of work and evicted from my apartment. That's when I decided to rob a convenience store in order to get enough money to leave town. Using a .25 caliber pistol, I robbed both a convenience store and a video rentals store, netting a total of $250. The police apprehended me at the bus station, and I was eventually given a 17-year prison sentence for two counts of armed-robbery.

Between the coffee, the filterless tobacco, the marijuana, and the stress, after about 16 months in prison I was a nervous wreck. That's when another inmate approached me and told me about Jesus Christ. He gave me a booklet that showed me God's wonderful plan of salvation and what it means to live for Christ. I discovered that God loves all of us and wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us. Wow! I could hardly believe that God really cared about me.

There was one major problem, however: sin. As I learned, all of us are born sinful and thus separated from God. We are imperfect and unholy, while God is absolutely perfect and holy. Furthermore, God's justice demands that sin be punished by death and eternal separation from him. There is absolutely nothing any of us can do to change the situation. It's hopeless. In that respect, the most upstanding citizen is in the same boat with the worst criminal.

But God loves us so much that he made a way-- the one and only way -- for us to be made right with him. Jesus Christ came to earth to pay the price for our sins. That's right: Jesus died in my place! And by turning from my life of sin and placing my faith and trust in Jesus, God would forgive me for all my sins. He would even give me a real and lasting desire to know and serve him.

It all sounded too good to be true. And so naturally I was a little skeptical. In fact, I was a lot skeptical. But God got hold of my heart and would not let go. For two entire days I was absolutely miserable, knowing that I needed to open my life and heart to Jesus but afraid of what I might be giving up (!) And so I told God I would give him one year of my life, after which we would reconvene to renegotiate the contract. And so, as sincerely as I knew how, I asked God to forgive me for my sins and for Jesus to come into my heart and be the Lord of my life.

After that, I started reading the New Testament and was constantly amazed at what I was learning about Jesus. And I found that the more I read and prayed, the more I could see my life changing for the better. I was actually becoming a new person! (Within a few weeks I had completely forgotten about my "contract" with God. That was in October 1987, and I've never looked back since.)

Another Chance