My life wasn’t really that different from that of many young people today. Maybe it was even somewhat like yours is now. Early in my life, my parents decided to get a divorce, and my brothers, sisters and I ended up in a children’s home. The divorce and everything were hard for us to understand, and even though I was the oldest, my nine years of age didn’t make it any easier for me. In defense, I rebelled and hated.
It wasn’t long before I found myself getting into trouble. The strangest thing was that I didn’t want to do the things I was doing, but I did them anyway. Smoking, swearing, hating, fighting, all came into my life before I had even reached my teens.
As I grew older, I found myself trying new things, and that ended up in trouble with the law. The first time I was really in trouble was when I was sixteen or seventeen years of age. I served four months for stealing a car. Less than a year later, I was in the Elmira State Reformatory in New York for burglary. I was paroled after eighteen months, but I had not learned one thing about obeying the law.
I was almost immediately in trouble with the law again, but this time it was really serious. I was twenty years of age, and my sentence for armed robbery was twenty years in the State Penitentiary. The time ahead looked long and grim, and with the hatred and coldness inside my soul I wasn’t really looking to get out soon. Trouble was still my constant companion.
Within my first six months, I had killed another prisoner. It was done in self-defense and the case was dropped, but the repercussions were enormous. Suddenly the guards all hated me, my fellow-prisoners feared me, and I was sentenced to one year in maximum security.
I fed my hatred there and decided that as long as I had to be in prison I would make the best of it. I would be tough. If I wanted something, I took it. I told people what I thought of them. I walked all over anybody I chose to. So what if somebody wanted to kill me? Who cared anyway? I would just as soon die as live the life I was living.
As the years passed, violence, hatred and drugs all became common things in my life. I was fit for nothing but hell, and I did not even care.
But all this time, there was One who cared. I did not know it, but there was a girl who did know and she wanted to tell me about that Person and His love for me.
We often invited people from the free world to come to the prison and listen as we held a speech contest. This particular girl came with a group of young people from the college that was in the same town as the prison. I never noticed her, but I guess she listened carefully to each speaker and took notes of what each one said.
I had spoken about life, a pretty confused speech since I really did not know what it was all about anyway, and a part of me really wanted to find out. All I could say was that life was a great big NOTHING - cold, cruel and ugly.
I never even noticed the girl, but a few days later I received a letter from her. She wrote saying she had an answer to the meaning of life and that she wanted to help me find it. Now this really stunned me, because there I was, a convict, and why would a person I did not even know care enough about me to go to all that trouble? I was sure she was after something.
But she kept writing, and in all the letters she talked about a Man named Jesus. She told me that He loved me and that He could give my life meaning. She spoke of my sins and my unworthiness to ever stand before God. She told of Christ and His death on the cross, and how that death could pay for my sins and make me worthy to stand in God’s holy presence. To me, most of it did not make much sense, but we kept exchanging letters.
Slowly and insistently, Christ spoke to my heart through the letters and the verses that the girl asked me to read in the Bible. And then one night in my cell I finally came to understand the great love that she spoke about. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had come to earth and had willingly laid down His life on the cross to make me fit for heaven. There was hope for me - there was a meaning for my life!
Tears streamed from my eyes as I fell on my knees before God. The Lord Jesus Christ had entered my life. I was saved, forgiven, a new man with a new life - I was a child of God. Christ had cleansed me from my sins with His precious blood shed on the cross. He had taken my punishment from the hand of a holy God. My sins no longer counted, not in God’s eyes. Before man I was guilty, serving twenty years in prison, but before God I was cleansed, free and without blame.
Yes, I was still in prison, but I had a new life and I had Christ and His love and grace to comfort me, His strength to help me. Undreamed-of happiness became mine. Life suddenly had a meaning.
Time passed slowly, but now I faced each parole board meeting with hope and thankfulness. Struggles and temptations met me, but Jesus helped me to face them. I slipped and fell many times, but now I had Someone to lift me back to my feet, Someone to give me a reason for going on.
Finally I was paroled, and I left prison a free man. I had entered that prison ten years before a prisoner of man, a prisoner of Satan, and a prisoner of myself. But I left free, saved by Christ. And I knew that He would always be with me.
Four days after my release the Lord allowed me to marry the girl He had used to bring me to Himself! We are now joyously serving our wonderful Lord Jesus together!
Maybe you are just like I was: confused, full of hatred, not knowing the wonderful meaning of life. All of us have sinned. We have all come short of the glory of God. But not one of us has to stay that way. Christ saved me, and if He could love me with all of my ugliness and sin, surely you can see that He loves you too.
The Bible says that Christ died for the ungodly. He died for our sins, was buried, and three days later He rose again, conquering Satan and death. The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin. Wonderful joy is awaiting you. Please look at Christ; see that His blood was shed for you too. Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.
By the grace of God I found the meaning of life, I found love, and I found peace all through Christ. I want you to know Him too as your Saviour, and then you will be able to say with me: “MY LIFE HAS MEANING!” v