A New Life

I had a difficult childhood. Many of my early memories are painful to recall. As I grew older, living in a secular home with my father and in a worldly neighborhood and school, I was easily impressionable. I cared more about what others thought than anything else, desiring to be accepted. I also wanted to feel safe and secure in a dangerous, poor community.

I found this security temporarily around the age of 15 in party/drug culture and gang life. It was an empty distraction. I would later leave home at 16.

Fast forward to September 3, 2013, at 24 years old after nearly 10 years selling drugs, in and out of gangs, and identifying as an atheist. I was arrested at gunpoint by a drug and firearm task force that had been following me. The prosecution was seeking a mandatory minimum 7-year prison sentence. The second night of my incarceration I began to pray. I didn't know who I was praying to. I didn't know what to say. I had rejected the idea of God several years earlier, but I prayed for help.

A week later, a minister visited our cell block and offered a message of hope. He explained that should I give my life to Jesus, believe, and confess Him, my sins would be forgiven, and I would have everlasting life. I didn't really believe that, but I wanted to. Over the coming weeks, I prayed for faith.

Weeks passed and I pondered the words he spoke. Other men who came to speak had something I didn’t. It seemed they radiated decency and goodness. I found this appealing.

During a gospel message, everything came to a head. It became clear that God loved me more than I could imagine, loved me in my sin, and loved me knowing I would continue to sin. In addition, He would send His most prized possession as a ransom so I could be with Him. Once I understood this in my soul, it was over. I believed.

I saw that because I wasn’t holy and He was, we were separated, but He bridged the gap through His son Jesus. I will remember this moment forever. I was alive for the first time. I could only weep, and I knew now I was a bondservant to righteousness. His love overcame me, and I surrendered everything to Him. God walked with me through what turned out to be a short sentence in the state penitentiary. I was a new person.

My life now is much different with my sweet wife and children. I also made a lifelong friend in the man who shared the gospel with me the day my life changed. Our families see one another often. A few years ago we returned to the same jail as ministers together. When we arrived, we were assigned the same cell block and the same room where I gave my life to Christ. There I shared a familiar message I had heard many years earlier.

– Thomas T.