Do you know how you sometimes plan to serve someone and you end up being served? A few weeks ago I was in southern California at a celebration of The Urban Ministry Initiative (TUMI), a joint partnership between Prison Fellowship and World Impact to train inmates to serve as pastors. I thought I was going there to serve the 400-plus people gathered to hear about this great program. I soon learned that a young man named Cary was there to serve me.
Cary is an ex-felon who served time for selling drugs and home invasion. He was raised in what most would consider a great home – his mom and dad loved one another, the kids, and Jesus. He lived in a safe, middle-class neighborhood where his dad served as chief of police. He received a great education. It would be easy to assume that Cary would grow up to be a fine citizen and follower of Jesus. Instead, Cary chose a different path.
In high school Cary used his entrepreneurial skills to start his own business. He used the money he earned in this endeavor to fund another, more lucrative business selling drugs. He began with marijuana. After doubling his money he “hired” others to help and soon expanded his offerings to include drugs with a better return on investment. Getting into cocaine, heroin, and crack increased sales and profit. While building his business Cary chose not to use. He did very well.
One day, curiousity got the best of Cary, and he began to experiment with marijuana. He quickly moved through the chain of drugs and became a methamphetamine addict. Suddenly any profits he had been earning were being used to support his habit. He found himself in debt, completely focused on getting meth and getting high. His business ability was lost in the haze of addiction.
If you know about meth addiction, you know it is insidious and cruel. Most men and women who end up on this path lose the will to get off of it. The chemicals in meth cause reactions in the brain that defy conventional addiction treatments. Sobriety is achieved “one minute at a time,” not “one day at a time.”
Cary is a success story. Going to jail saved his life. He gave his life to Jesus in jail and his time there served as the beginning of his recovery. He enrolled in the TUMI program in the prison, and began studies to become a pastor. He now serves on a church staff, and plans to attend graduate school and continue to serve Jesus. He is reconciled with his family and has been sober for five years. That is a miracle! It is a miracle of God’s power and grace.
How did Cary serve me? Why was my encounter with him a “God moment?” I have a nephew who is a meth addict that will be released from prison in a few months. I have prayed and prayed for his healing. The odds, in human terms, are not great – but God is. Meeting Cary gave me hope because I could touch and feel and hear and know a young man who was doing what I pray my nephew can do – find victory, sobriety and reconciliation.
As we partner with tens of thousands of people all across America caring for inmates and helping them return to our communities, remember Cary – and tens of thousands like him – who find victory! In Jesus, our work is never in vain. It has power. As my nephew gets out I will point him to Cary as one who can help him and be a leader for him.
I went to Southern California to serve and I was served. Isn’t that just like God? Thanks for serving and being served with me!