Medlock Juvenile Correctional Facility
July 27th, 2013
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His name was Jay, and I knew he was going to be the difficult kid.
You
see, I had been assigned to a juvenile center for this particular
'Weekend of Champions,' but juvenile centers are not like adult
facilities. A lot of these kids are fresh off of the world’s terrible
experiences and they just haven’t had time to process how to react to
anything, yet. They mostly just know anger, with trails of bitterness
and plenty of resentment and shame to go around.
“That’s okay” I thought to myself, “I’ve been there...” Maybe not prison, but I know what it’s like to be where his heart is.
“How about we just talk?” I insisted, as I turned to face this young teenager.
We
had just heard from our platform speaker, a young man by the name of
Mike, who had spent four years in TDC (Texas Department of Corrections)
lockup for adult offenders. Mike had been assigned to the “Walls” unit
of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “That’s where they execute people!”
he exclaimed, as he told of his experiences of being tear-gassed by the
prison’s riot guard, following an incident involving an inmate above
his cell.
But Mike wasn’t there to scare the kids; he
just wanted them to be aware of the reality that some of them were
committing their lives to. But more to his point, Mike was there to
share the story of How God had redeemed him out of a life of crime and
incarceration. At only twenty-one years old, Mike had been found guilty
of intoxication manslaughter in the death of a twenty-five year old
man, whom he had been guilty of murdering on his way home from a drunken
party. Mike also had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, none of
which he had ever been arrested for, until that night. After his trial,
Mike was sentenced to four years in adult lock-up, at one of the
toughest prisons in Texas. It was here that the Lord began to change his
heart as he went on to become a counselor for those struggling with
varying addictions.
At the end of Mike’s testimony, as
with all speakers, there’s always an invitation time. This is mostly
when we get to be one-on-one with the inmates, to answer any questions,
to pray for them or simply to minister to them.
I had my eye on Jay from before Mike started speaking. “So what did you think?” I inquired, as the invitation time commenced.
– “I’ve already heard this,” he responded, in an un-interested, almost combative tone. “Can I go now?”
Jay wanted nothing to do with me, and he hadn't exactly been thrilled with the morning session, either.
– We spoke for a while longer and Jay eventually joined his friends to exit the gymnasium.
I
know that not every prison experience is going to be one of profound
spiritual reckoning or earth-shattering discipleship. But talking with
Jay made me appreciate my time with him for different reasons. I look at
Jay and I see a lot of myself at his age. His rebellious spirit and
critical attitude is precisely the posture of heart that the Lord began
working on me around his age. And the more I see that it’s not Jay who
wants anything to do with God, the more I am grateful for, and desperate
for his grace and mercy.
I’ve always admired the words of this humble theologian:
“The
Lord is able to bring you to a place of His choosing, kicking and
screaming, until you realize the price you’ve paid along the way.” – Dr. Ravi Zacharias
The sad truth is, that a lot of these kids will end
up in adult facilities someday, simply because they have not been
broken enough to surrender to the Lord’s calling on their lives. But
where there is rebellion, there is also the beauty of the cross and a
God Who so radically Loves them, that He was willing to trade their
prison bars for death. And with every prison facility that I enter,
with every offender who is unwilling to surrender to the Lordship of
Christ, I am also reminded of my own rebellion and the tender grace and
brutal death of my God, Who died in my place.
note:*(Some names have been changed for protection and privacy purposes.)
