I am feeling very tender today.
As I write this it is May 3, which is the 11-year anniversary of my release from prison.
I remember that day so well. My parents picked me up and had to take me straight to the halfway house here in Marion.
As a federal meth felon, things looked pretty bleak.
Who would hire me?
How would I ever get on my feet and have a life?
I tried my best to shove those fears aside and hold on to the promises God had spoken over my life.
Thanks to the dedicated volunteers who came to the prison to teach about Jesus, I had learned a few things.
I had learned how to hold on to the promises in the Bible and declare them over my life.
The ones I was clinging to were Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11.
In Romans, it says that God will cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
That seemed pretty far-fetched because as a federal meth felon, He would have a lot of "working together" to make anything good come out of the mess I had made out of my life.
The verse in Jeremiah says: I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans not to harm you, but to give you a future and a hope.
I kept declaring those words as I left prison behind and went into a future that did not look promising.
But God has His ways, and they definitely are not our ways.
Slowly but surely, He began to weave together His plans for my life.
As I have discovered, they were WAY BIGGER than anything I could have ever hoped or dreamed.
Today is the 11-year anniversary of my release from prison.
This evening I will be accepting SIU's Alumni of the Year Award for the field of Social Work.
Coincidence? I don't think so.
I think it is the worlds greatest Cosmic wink and bear hug from a Heavenly Daddy who thinks way more of me than I have ever thought of myself.
Do I get to take any credit for this myself?
HECK NO! He has done great things, so To God Be the Glory!!
Do I think that I am His favorite and all of these goodies are just for me?
Nope. It says in His word that His promises are for whosoever will believe.
It says in Acts 2:39, "This promise belongs to you and to your children ... It belongs to everyone who worships the Lord our God."
And here's something I learned from experience.
He had to give me the will to be a whosoever will.
I didn't even have that as a starting point.
He's that good.
Trust me; if He will do it for this former felon, He will do it for anybody!
So I double-dog dare you to find a promise in His word, start declaring it and begin to get your hopes up.
• Cris Corzine-McCloskey is the director of Caring Counseling Ministries, 11264 Route 37, Marion, a nonprofit that provides counseling from a Biblical perspective at an affordable cost. Reach them at (618) 997-2129.
