VL - Issue 17 - August 2015

A PERSISTENT GOD | from page 15____________________________________________________
pounds to less than 130. I looked like a skeleton on my
5-foot-10-inch frame.
Luckily, my boss and I got fired for stealing at
work. I say luckily, because that’s what saved me. I
became so sick that I was actually bedridden. I ended
up moving back in with my parents, who helped me
regain my health.
Slowly I began to feel better, although I still had
lingering effects from my previous drug use. My nerves
were shot, my lungs were permanently damaged, and
my teeth were a mess.
With a bit of renewed health, I landed a lawnservice
job. Fortunately, my new boss didn’t seem
concerned about my drug history. I had hit the
jackpot, I thought. Then one day I walked up to find
him smoking something in a can. It turned out to be
crack cocaine. You would think that after all I had been
through, I would have had better sense than to even
get near the stuff. But I didn’t. Like my stepdad had
said, I was as dumb as they come.
I became hooked in no time, sucking the stuff down
like a Hoover vacuum cleaner! I singlehandedly helped
my boss run his business into the ground. Between
the two of us, we had an over $2,000 a week habit.
Thank God, I was single and had no children. That
stuff will make you sell your kids for just a little hit!
It took a near-death experience that scared the living
daylights out of me before I quit cold turkey and tried
to straighten out my life.
Around my twenty-fifth birthday, I moved in with my
girlfriend. We lived together in her parents’ house for
six years. Many times, they urged her to get rid of my
sorry butt, yet she always stood up for me. She must
have loved me dearly to go through all she did on my
account. We had two children together, but in the end,
she took her parents’ advice and kicked me out.
There she went, with my two sons, right out of my
life. I can’t say I blame her.
Being with her and her family was one of the few
times that I have felt loved. And I truly loved her and
my kids. I still do; I just didn’t know how to receive
their love or show it, and I ran those relationships right
into the dirt.
I returned to my parents’ home. While there, I
did anything I could to not be sober. I just wanted
to escape, to forget about my pain and my life. My
constant drunken state prevented me from getting a
permanent job. So I stole and worked odd jobs around
the neighborhood for people that I now assume felt
sorry for me. This went on until I was thirty-one, when
I made a mistake that I couldn’t escape.
I’d met a girl who was a mutual friend of my
previous girlfriend. She and I often got high together.
One night, tired of always paying for our drug habit, I
told her it was time for her to return the favor, if you
know what I mean. After all, I thought she liked me.
In no uncertain terms, she made it perfectly clear that
“that” was not happening, to which she added a few
rude comments. Before I knew it, I snapped and forced
her to have sex with me. She went to the police, and I
ended up in prison. And it was there that I eventually
found life. I am currently serving the remainder of my
fifteen-year sentence.
As I look back over my life, I can see clearly God’s
faithful attempts to intervene and get my attention so
that He could draw me to Himself. As a child, there
was the elderly couple who picked me up for Sunday
School and the Roy Clark look-alike who poured
Christ’s love and the Word into my life. During the
years when I was destroying myself with drugs and
alcohol, God had sent other people to tell me about
Him. Even my girlfriend’s parents had tried to help me
and prayed for me to see the light.
But what did I do? Well, I’d told them all where they
could take their beliefs and their Jesus,
and stick ’em. I just wouldn’t
receive what they were
saying. If Jesus loved
me, then why was
my life such a
Lessons from Chris
by Kristi Overton Johnson
When our writing team received inmate Chris B.’s letter, they were so blessed.
Our prison correspondence director, Linda, called me right away. “Kristi, you have
to read this letter we just received. It’s a long one, but boy, is it something!” She
made a copy of his letter and sent it to me. (You can read Chris’s story beginning
on page 15.)
I was immediately put at ease by Chris’s sense of humor and openness.
Eighteen pages later, I sat with a big smile on my face and could only say one
thing—wow! Chris’s story not only touched my heart, but it reminded me of
some very important truths we must not forget as we represent Jesus to those
around us.
• BE PERSISTENT. All around us are people who need to know the love
of God. If we don’t tell them, who will? The persistent witness of people
(for instance, inmate Scott), is what ultimately led Chris to Christ. Being
persistent doesn’t mean we get in someone’s face or beat them over the
head with a Bible. Rather, it means we consistently and humbly love people
to God with our words and actions. Let Chris’s story be a reminder to never
give up on people, no matter where they tell you to stick your Jesus. Your
persistent love will reap a harvest.
• BE CREATIVE. I love the creativity of Chris’s Sunday School teacher. The
Roy Clark look-alike used games as motivation to get young children to dive
into the Word of God. And it worked. His creative mind made the class fun
and exciting, and as a result, his young students read the Bible. Right about
now, someone is probably saying, “Paying a kid money to read the Bible?
Now, that is just terrible! They should read it on their own.” I don’t think
the source of the motivation really matters. What matters is that the Word
of God was planted in Chris’s heart and mind. And you know what? The
Word of God will never come back void.
• BE PURE. When we hold ourselves out as believers, we must remember
that we represent Christ at all times. How we speak and act projects either
a positive or negative image about Christianity into people’s minds. Believe
me—people are always watching! My heart broke when I read how the
woman preacher’s double standard caused Chris to reject Christianity. He
refused to set foot in a church again due to her hypocrisy. Heaven forbid,
our words or actions become a stumbling block to others knowing Christ.
• BE WILLING. Sometimes the little things in life make the biggest difference.
For Chris, an old church bus driven by an elderly couple and a willing
Sunday School teacher who provided a safe haven of love, encouragement,
and hope are what made the difference. As Chris said, those were the best
hours of his week. That couple, well into their eighties, could have easily
used their retirement card and refused to serve in this capacity. But they
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