A gifted life
Return to me with all your heart (Joel 2:12)
I want to tell you the story of Rafael Cabrera. As a young black man in Los Angeles he became caught up in drugs and gang violence. In a moment of great rage one day he wound down his car window and shot a young man he saw on the street. The young man, Jerry Gonzales, died and Rafael went to prison for life.
As you probably know in American prisons life usually means just that. A lifer stays incarcerated until they die of old age. Unusually during his 20th year parole hearing, the judge on the board, Craig Mitchell, did not oppose his parole. This began a decade long year friendship, with letters exchanged some of them 20 pages long. It took a long time and a lot of work by Judge Mitchell, but, nearly 10 years later, Rafael was allowed out of prison on parole.
The story is told as part of the film Skid Row Marathon. This documentary follows Judge Mitchell's running club at the Midnight Mission, a Christian homeless shelter off Skid Row in downtown LA. His runners are all ex-addicts and every story of success is a joy to watch: the alcoholic who starts a career as a music composer, the heroine addict who finds education and a job as a medical technician, the ex-addict artist and so one. All beginning with a regular early morning run.
However, one moment in the film stands out for me. It is when the cameras follow Rafael visiting the grave of his victim. As a penniless gang member Jerry Gonzales was buried in a shared plot and had no memorial. So Rafael found where he was buried and had a gravestone installed. Now he visits and each time he is reminded that for him nothing can ever pay back what he took away. So every day he gives back what he can. He drives relatives to prisons so they can visit their loved ones. He goes into juvenile detention centres to help young people escape the cycle of crime and prison. His life has become a gift to others.
Joel writes God's word to us: return to me with all your heart. As I watched I couldn't help wondering how much of my heart God had received. All of it? I think not. And yet I have as much to return as Rafael. If I really believed that Christ died for me on that cross, then he would have all my heart. Like Rafael, my life would in all its moments be a gift to others. And what would our churches be like if we were all like that, if each of us caught the sense of a life gifted by God for others, if Jesus had our whole hearts and not just part of them.
I want to tell you the story of Rafael Cabrera. As a young black man in Los Angeles he became caught up in drugs and gang violence. In a moment of great rage one day he wound down his car window and shot a young man he saw on the street. The young man, Jerry Gonzales, died and Rafael went to prison for life.
As you probably know in American prisons life usually means just that. A lifer stays incarcerated until they die of old age. Unusually during his 20th year parole hearing, the judge on the board, Craig Mitchell, did not oppose his parole. This began a decade long year friendship, with letters exchanged some of them 20 pages long. It took a long time and a lot of work by Judge Mitchell, but, nearly 10 years later, Rafael was allowed out of prison on parole.
The story is told as part of the film Skid Row Marathon. This documentary follows Judge Mitchell's running club at the Midnight Mission, a Christian homeless shelter off Skid Row in downtown LA. His runners are all ex-addicts and every story of success is a joy to watch: the alcoholic who starts a career as a music composer, the heroine addict who finds education and a job as a medical technician, the ex-addict artist and so one. All beginning with a regular early morning run.
However, one moment in the film stands out for me. It is when the cameras follow Rafael visiting the grave of his victim. As a penniless gang member Jerry Gonzales was buried in a shared plot and had no memorial. So Rafael found where he was buried and had a gravestone installed. Now he visits and each time he is reminded that for him nothing can ever pay back what he took away. So every day he gives back what he can. He drives relatives to prisons so they can visit their loved ones. He goes into juvenile detention centres to help young people escape the cycle of crime and prison. His life has become a gift to others.
Joel writes God's word to us: return to me with all your heart. As I watched I couldn't help wondering how much of my heart God had received. All of it? I think not. And yet I have as much to return as Rafael. If I really believed that Christ died for me on that cross, then he would have all my heart. Like Rafael, my life would in all its moments be a gift to others. And what would our churches be like if we were all like that, if each of us caught the sense of a life gifted by God for others, if Jesus had our whole hearts and not just part of them.
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| My son's hand obscuring our Easter garden, yet the cross is still visible |
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