You Can Only Control Your Next Choice

I was so thrilled and honored last evening to get to partner with my son, Taylor, to conduct two back-to-back worship services at the Stark County Jail.  I have been in hundreds of jail services for many thousands of inmates over the last few years but last night was very, very unique and special for I witnessed a high degree of sincere connectivity from the inmates from the beginning to the end of both services.  That, in and of itself, is a blessing!

The topic Taylor preached on was simple meaning not complex or doctrinally over the heads of these men most of which were completely unchurched. However, the way in which Taylor unfolded the topic was simply amazing and it was one of those topics that really grabbed my mind and heart as I let it works its way through my brain to my heart.  I have written many times about the power and implication of choice in one's life on these pages.  Each semester I open the time up on that very subject as the students and I begin our academic journey; MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES!  When I counsel or mentor I will use that vector to get to the real issues in that person's life that has brought them closer to me. MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES!

But Taylor's sermon topic underscored an element that I had not processed that a person really can only control his or her next choice! Wow!!  We get so hung up on all the bad in our lives most of which are triggered because of poor decisions we have made or bad choices on what and when and how to do whatever is affecting us today when all the time there is but one real reality, we can control ONLY THE NEXT Choice!  Now put that in context of the setting last evening of relatively young men, primarily African American, in a jail, wearing orange over sized jump suits, tattoos galore, many missing teeth, some came into the service angry, downhearted, frustrated, scared ... You Can Only Control Your Next Choice ... clearer now?

The sermon resonated more clearly with the inmates in both services than in any previous jail service in which I have been a part.  Several times after I sang as I sat listening to the sermon with the inmates to my right, I would break away from viewing Taylor to turning my head to see the inmates and to see them, to a person, locked in on his words, heads nodding in agreement, tears flowing, hands raised by some; that is CONNECTIVITY. No pun intended but they were truly a captive audience and they all wanted to be there and hated to leave when the deputies came to move them back to their cell areas

I just had to share this this morning for it so deeply affected me last night to see what I described.  THAT was a worship service in a jail. God's presence was so very real and you know, that made it the most special.  I, as a dad, was amazed at how God has crafted and molded my son into such a wonderful speaker that can connect so well for he does not do it with gimmicks or loudness or some audience-pleasing style, he was himself and every man in that room identified with that. Yup, one proud father I was!  And there is no doubt those men returned to their cells reflecting on what they had just experienced.

Pray for these men and women in the jails. It is easy to ignore or just forget about them but they have children and wives and family and lives of many that reside in that cell as they sit there for it is never just the inmate that are being incarcerated, is it?  I believe there will be a better brand of choices made as a result of God's presence that was so strong last night in the music and in the word for it all came from the Word!  So how will you control your next choice this day?  Perhaps you are in your own jail cell that has been self induced and many in your life are residing there next to you in captivity!  Think about your next choice! PLEASE