My Trek from Crime to Contribution

In 1966, two years before my release from prison, I confronted a startling fact about myself. Crime had become a habit. I was 24 years old and had been a criminal for 19 years. Imprisoned for the first time when I was 17--December 1959; released during the Spring of 1962 and reincarcerated the following summer, I could not deny the obvious conclusion: I was a habitual criminal. During those 19 years, I had worked just four jobs--washing pots and pans in a Durham cafeteria, trying to sell piano lessons for a local piano store, a hospital orderly, and a teaching assistant during a brief stint on parole from December 1965 until July 1966. As dismal as my life was, I saw an upside.

In 1961--again in December, God introduced Himself to me by orchestrating a miracle that while I neither fully understood nor appreciated it, the experience captivated my attention. Slowly but surely I began wondering if the Bible held real answers for me, or was it simply a collection of myths, fables and family stories about a people long dead. In other words, could it be possible that God and the Bible might be relevant to my life. I don't consider my experience to be the typical "prison house" conversion, accompanied by a lot of praise, worship, church services and the like. That's just not my approach, even today. I was desperate. I want relevant answers, not a bunch of religious sounding mumbo jumbo. If the Bible held those answers, then I would do whatever I had to do to find them. Bible study was difficult initially for two principal reasons: first, I knew nothing at all about the Bible, and secondly, I had so very little time. During those days, prison in North Carolina featured five days of gruelling road work, everything from laying driveway pipes in rural communities to patching major highways. We cut a lot of bushes along North Carolina's back roads. Usually, we left the prison camp by 7:30am and usually returned about 4:30, with sometimes a one hour truck ride on either end of seven hours of back breaking work. Depending on the time of the year, inmates got to spend some recreation time on the yard before and after supper. We were usually locked in for the night no later than 7pm. Lights went off about 10pm, except on weekends. With that schedule, I had to sacrifice a lot of usual prison activities for Bible study.

I had no study plan, so I began with the beginning of Genesis, and switched rather quickly to Matthew in the New Testament. Suddenly, without warning, it seemed that someone began guiding my reading, and in Isaiah 55:8 I learned that the human problem boils down tothis: we don't think like God; therefore, we do not behave as He does. So, I wondered, why is our thinking so messed up? Days later, I read in Jeremiah 17:9 that the human mind is deceiful above all things,desperately wicked and beyond cure. That's sounds depressing. I suffer with natural stinking thinking and it can't be cured. Sometime later, I read a command: "Present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God and be no longer conformed to this age, but become transformed by the renewing of your mind." But how, I wondered? How do I make myself a sacrifice to do? How do I stop conforming to the ways of this world? How do I become transformed by having my mind renewed?

Slowly, but surely, I began to see real, relevant and practical answers to the issues that plagued me. Therefore, by the middle of 1968, about six months before my scheduled released from prison, I knew the following: "Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory: We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials for we know that they are good for us--they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strenght of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners . . .God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's judgment. For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be delivered form enternal punishment by His life. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God--all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God." (Rom. 5:1-11)

So what did I have to do? The answer was disarmingly simple. I had to believe what God said, what He revealed in the Bible. The apostle Paul posed this identical question to the believers in Galatia: "Let me ask you one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the law? Of course not, for the Holy Spirit came upon you only after you believed the message you heard about Christ. Have you lost your senses? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort . . .I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law of Moses? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. In the same way, Abraham believed God, so God declared him righteous because of his faith. The real children of Abraham, then, are all thos who put their faith in God . . . it is clear that no one can ever be right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, 'It is through faith that a righteous person has life.' (Gal. 3:1-11)

Finally, I learned this: "Then Jesus said to the disciples, "Have faith in God. I assure you that you can say to this mountain,' May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,' and your command will be obeyed. All that's required is that you reall believe and do not doubt in your heart. Listen to me! You can pray for anything and if you believe you will have it."

I left prison with that vision. I was right with God, even His friend, not because of anything special I had done or could do, but because I believed what Jesus accomplished with His sacrifice. I could master mountains, not because I was strong enough, but because God would move these mountains because I am His friend. During this process, I would learn more and more about how to sacrifice all that I am in exchange for all that He can cause me to be.

What a deal!

Therefore, about September 1968, I began writing a 50 year life plan. In this plan, I saw myself taking advantage of any opportunity, no matter how slim, that would help me become a professional writer. I included teaching in my plan because after a brief experience in Odom, a close custody prison in eastern North Carolina, I had taught adult basic education classes briefly, and sorta liked it.

So on December 9, 1968 I left prison with a plan, a road map for real freedom, a way to stay out. It has not been easy, but the results have been more than worth it. Therefore, as I reflect on the process I have lived for almost 40 years now, I summarize this way, Every plan for success begins with a vision, includes a mission, a philosophy, a set of objectives, with strategies for each one, a method of communicating your vision and mission to others, and a timeline.
Next: The laws that guarantee success.