{"id":80013,"date":"2019-01-05T23:26:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T04:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.discover-grace.flywheelsites.com\/?p=80013"},"modified":"2019-01-05T23:26:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T04:26:37","slug":"loris-story-finding-grace-in-a-prison-cell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discovergrace.com\/loris-story-finding-grace-in-a-prison-cell\/","title":{"rendered":"Lori’s Story: Finding Grace in a Prison Cell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever had one of those days when it seems like everything you touch malfunctions?\u00a0The copier jams as you\u2019re trying to get a big project out.\u00a0 Your computer crashes just before you save that document you\u2019ve been working on all morning.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s just me (there is a standing joke in my family that I repel technology), but when the spinning wheel of sorrows shows up on my phone, I sometimes turn to that reset feature wishing I could use it for my day, not just my device.
\nAs the calendar flips to 2019, a lot of folks may be wishing that life came with a reset button as they look back over the last year.\u00a0 Each approaching January used to bring overwhelming dread for me. \u00a0While surrounded by friends celebrating the New Year and resolving to make all kinds of fresh starts, my mind would silently play out a miserable \u201cyear-in-review\u201d of regrets and fears over unfulfilled promises, changes not made, opportunities lost, and words spoken without love.\u00a0 For a long time, I tried to meet the challenges of life \u2014 including shouldering the load of melancholy, anxiety, and remorse \u2014 without any meaningful relationship with Jesus.\u00a0 And the burden of it was horrible.
\nFor many years, I used alcohol to try to ease that burden.\u00a0 It worked.\u00a0 Sort of.\u00a0I could \u201ccast my cares\u201d on alcohol, so to speak, but alcohol did not care for me. Alcohol could numb me out temporarily to the troubles of the world, but it had not overcome them.\u00a0 For a while, alcohol might help me forget things I\u2019d done or left undone but it couldn\u2019t redeem them.
\nI didn\u2019t know my solution wasn\u2019t working until I was in real trouble, and that was when I woke up in a hospital room on July 7, 2003.\u00a0 A few days later, my parents would explain that I had been driving drunk, in a blackout, and crashed into another vehicle, killing two people.
\nIn 2004, I began serving my sentence for DUI Manslaughter.\u00a0 Somewhere, sometime, someone must have prayed for me right out of Matthew 9:38<\/a>, because the Lord of the harvest surely sent out workers into His harvest.
\nEarly and often in my prison experience, I found myself in situations that I would never have chosen for myself with a willingness and openness that was, frankly, foreign to this stubborn know-it-all. Although I could not have been convinced of it at the time that I started my prison sentence, I can honestly look back now and view my experience (yes, even my prison experience) with gratitude.
\nIn the worst of circumstances, I met Jesus, got to know Jesus, fell in love with Jesus, questioned everything about Jesus, then fell in love with Him again, and made the decision to follow Him.\u00a0 A hundred jokes have probably been written about Jesus being found in jail, but here is my truth: When you reach the end of yourself (whether it\u2019s in a prison cell, a hospital room, or an airplane that\u2019s rapidly descending for no reason), you reach a place where you know a Power outside yourself is carrying you. It is there that you understand there is power in prayer.\u00a0And then you begin to know God.
\nI would give anything to undo the pain and consequences that my choices brought to others, yet it was in the depths of this very painful time that I felt God pouring His grace out on me in the most real and tangible ways. The event that remains for me as the touchstone of this time was meeting the family members of my crash victims.
\nOne of my most vivid memories of that day is of my own hand reaching for the knob to open the door to the room in which they were waiting.\u00a0I remember praying to a God that I didn\u2019t really know, \u201cPlease let me be whatever they need to start healing.\u00a0 If they need a punching bag, or someone to yell at or spit on, Lord, let me be that for them.\u00a0 Let me just take it so they can heal.\u201d
\nI was so full of fear and dread as I walked through that door, but what was waiting for me on the other side was compassion, mercy, and forgiveness. I don\u2019t remember the exact words that were spoken that day, but I do remember the feeling of freedom that came with them. Generous, undeserved, beautiful, freely-given freedom through forgiveness \u2013 the last thing I had expected as I opened that door.\u00a0 And yet, as awesome as the gift of that forgiveness that my victims\u2019 families gave me was, it is just a picture that pales next to the true freedom given to me through the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
\nI came into an intimate relationship with the Lord in the middle of the worst of time of my life, but He is still showing up every day with opportunities to choose whether I will allow my current circumstance to drive me from Him or draw me to Him.
\nOne of the first things that I heard at Grace was \u201cOur mission is to help people take their next steps towards Christ.\u201d\u00a0 I love being part of a church that encourages everyone that, no matter the circumstances our lives, we can always step closer towards Christ.
\nIf I really want to reset my life, I just need to ask myself, \u201cHow can I choose Jesus right now\u201d?\u00a0 The answer is the action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever had one of those days when it seems like everything you touch malfunctions?\u00a0The copier jams as you\u2019re trying to get a big project out.\u00a0 Your computer crashes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":79996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-80013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stories"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLori's Story: Finding Grace in a Prison Cell - Grace Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the worst of circumstances, I met Jesus, got to know Jesus, fell in love with Jesus, questioned everything about Jesus, then fell in love with Him again, and made the decision to follow Him.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/discovergrace.com\/loris-story-finding-grace-in-a-prison-cell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lori's Story: Finding Grace in a Prison Cell - 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