I went to the county jail yesterday to visit a young lady incarcerated for selling drugs to an undercover officer.  I expected to deal with a con artist, someone who knew how to fool everyone else because she herself was fooled.  But I was surprised at her openness in admitting that she made bad choices and now had to make it right.

I asked her how she thought God felt about her right now.  In shame she said that He was probably mad at her right now.  That gave me an opportunity to talk about how God loves her unconditionally and that she was beating up on herself because she was using her own failure as the standard of forgiveness, rather than what Jesus did for her on the cross.  We prayed a prayer of rededication and I expect God to begin revealing Himself to her daily.

But, most of all, the experience taught me a valuable lesson on thanksgiving.  As I talked to her my mind went back to some of my own stupid and irresponsible choices I made years ago.  But for the grace of God, I would be the one sitting there in that cold jail cell.  I left the jail with a deeper appreciation of the Lord’s grace in my life.  That’s what I’m thankful for!

Tags: choices, grace, jail, thankful