Tony: A new beginning

Tony is a middle-aged man who suffers chronic pain from some severely ruptured discs in his lower back. He tells me that he has abused his body with hard living since he was a teenager and is suffering the consequences every day.

Tony grew up in Charleston, SC, where he and his brother got involved in quite a lot of mischief when they were young. As they grew older, the only thing that changed was that their misbehavior became more and more serious, reaching its culmination one night when Tony’s brother killed a man against whom he was carrying a grudge. Tony vows that not only was he not involved in the murder, but he tried to persuade his brother against the idea. Tony says that his brother, in an effort to avoid the death penalty, implicated him in the crime. They both went to prison–Tony for 18 years and his brother for the rest of his life. Tony says the hardest thing he has ever done in his life is to forgive his brother.
After Tony shared his story with me, I told him a story: the story of a man named Joseph, who became a slave in a far-away country because of the betrayal of his brothers and went to prison for a crime he never committed. I talked with him about the providence of God in Joseph’s life–how God brought him out of prison, healed his painful memories of the past, gave him grace to forgive his brothers, and ultimately brought him into his destiny. I assured Tony that God could take everything that had happened in his life–the wrong that had been done to him, the pain he had suffered, and even his own misdeeds of the past–and redeem all of that to fulfill His purpose for his life.

Tony assured me that he was all for that. He said that if God could take the rest of his life and do something with it, he was welcome to it. And I said, “Tony, that’s all God is waiting for. If you really mean that, tell God right now that you give him your life without any reservation and then follow up on that commitment by following Christ for the rest of your life.” Tony agreed and I prayed with him right there on the street. I prayed for Tony’s healing as well, asking God to touch him and relieve his pain. I’m going to follow up with Tony and encourage his faith. Pray for Tony that God will give him an Ephraim (a fruitful new beginning) and a Manasseh (the power to forget his painful past).