Stop, Look, Listen
By Paul Folsom
I am in prison, serving life without parole in a state penitentiary. In here I have a lot of time to think back over my life, and in doing so, I can recognize all of the many changes I have undergone. Every stage of my life has been marked by extremes: From a destitute hitch-hiker sleeping under a bridge, to owning my own business, then back down to a lonely convict in a cold prison cell. Yes, my life has run the gamut of human futility, only to come face to face with the wretched soul I had become!
In an effort to fill the emptiness, I tried all manner of sin, drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, only to experience deeper emptiness and increasing degeneracy. The mental and physical deterioration was gradual but nonetheless devastating. I began to feel there was no reason for living. Yet, I failed to realize that I was slowly and methodically killing myself by my uncontrollable addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex. I was also unaware of the self-inflicted wounds that were festering and oozing a bitterness that was consuming my heart, mind, and soul.
Then on a terrible and tragic night in December 1992, with my own hands I assaulted my wife and 15 year old step daughter. To this day I am not sure why or how it happened, but on that night in a drug demented state of mind I assaulted two women whom I loved and was to protect as a husband and father. If you are one of those who believes drugs do not cause harm, I can tell you first hand; they will and do! A simple drink may seem harmless, "and everyone does it." I thought that once! It is not so much the effects of the one beer, but rather the pattern it sets in your life, which finally places you in the crushing grip of addiction and leads you down the road to certain destruction!
Fortunately for me, a miracle was wrought that broke the bonds of addiction, restored my life, filled the emptiness in my heart and transformed this once wretched soul into a useful human being. A miracle only possible through Jesus Christ.
Friends, if there has been any purpose in my sin-filled life of misery, it must surely be to show others the wonderful healing transformation God will perform if we will only call upon Him. If you, too, have felt as I have, or if you are at this time struggling with addiction, alcohol, peer pressure, or plain loneliness, be assured there is One who can pluck you from the mire of self-indulgence, the grime of sinful lust, and the blackness of an empty heart and wash you white as snow. Your only hope, as was mine, is in the saving grace of Jesus. He and He alone can bring to your life this miracle of redemption and give you the peace you seek for your troubled soul! Trust Him!
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