Countdown To Freedom

The holidays aren't much fun when you're surrounded by hundreds of other men in jail stripes...But that's exactly where I found myself this year as I ate my sloppy joe Thanksgiving dinner in the Calhoun County Jail located in Anniston, AL. Each day i spent in there was marked off on a calendar that my cellmate (who had been in that same jail for 16months on drug charges) had made. Each night when we marked another day off, it made us realize how long the days really were, and what all we were missing by being confined in cages within a jail housing over twice its capacity. I had tried to suppress the thought of having to go back there, but when you have a warrant hanging over you, then its something that you're ALWAYS thinking about. I had done everything in my power to avoid coming back to jail once I found out that a warrant for my arrest had been issued for not reporting to my probation officer (he never answered or responded to my calls after they reopened from covid epidemic). So since I didn't feel the warrant was legit considering the circumstances, I did what any law abiding citizen with a warrant would do and I got someone else's driver's license information and memorized it so that if I got pulled over, then I could morph into that other person during the traffic stop. Well all that did was help me to catch a fresh charge. The judicial system seems to frown upon telling an officer someone else's name. It wasn't until I had the cuffs on me that I realized I was being arrested for LYING...!!?? Obstruction of Justice is the technical name for it, but it was simply a lil white lie to keep me from having to go to jail and miss another holiday with my family. One thing jail CAN be good for though, is it will help you dwell on your mistakes and come up with a game plan to fix them. Some people have an illegal game plan to avoid making the same mistake, which in their eyes was getting caught. I, on the other hand, was trying to figure out a way to make some positive changes in my life and I knew the best person to help me do that, REGARDLESS of my situation, was God. But before you roll your eyes and become disinterested with another tale of a convict finding Jesus while incarcerated, I want you to know that I had grown up in church, attended Bible school, participated in Bible drills, and became saved when I was 12 years old. My parents are wonderful Christian people who raised me the RIGHT way, even though I may have made some decisions that led me down a different path, I still had the Lord in my heart. He was the reason for my shame and guilt that I was feeling now. Even though I knew that at that exact moment I deserved to be in jail, I knew I didn't belong there. So for the 1st time in any of my incarcerations, I came up with a Positive Progressive Plan. I knew I had to remain positive in order to keep my sanity while I was in there, so any idea or action that I needed to take had to be a positive one. After appointing positivity as my captain into the gameplan, I assigned progression as the game changer. I could never get ahead in life and would stay stuck in the rut I was in if I didn't move forward with different aspects of my life. So once I had the outline of my plan laid out, I needed to go into detail of HOW I was going to put it into effect. I came up with the idea of jotting down a positive quote alongside a progressive move that I could make, like applying for jobs, or volunteering my time to help others. I decided to use the time after lockdown when I marked that particular day off the calendar to put my new positive saying and progressive action onto paper. After a few weeks however, I think Satan was trying to get me to throw in the towel because I started questioning my motives and not wanting to deal with the PP Plan anymore. But I fought off those negative temptations and after I marked that Friday off the calendar, I sat down on my rack and prayed for God to give me some understanding about my situation because not only was I unsure how long I was going to be locked up, but I didn't see the point of the PP plan if I was going to be in jail a year from now. My attorney had already informed me that the judge was recommending revoking my probation for the new charge, so i had already gone into the mindset of sitting down and doing my little bit of time. God had a different idea than the judge though because the VERY NEXT day after I had begun doubting the PP Plan and had prayed for Him to show me some understanding regarding my situation, they call my name for an attorney visit...On a SATURDAY afternoon...which is unheard of because you usually only get to see them Monday-Friday of you're lucky to have them even actually come to the jail to see you. But I go in the attorney room with my mind racing, and before I even sit down,, he smiles and gives me the greatest Christmas present I could've asked for...he tells me that the court has recommended a dunk (term for a probation violation in Alabama) instead of a revocation, and asks me if I want to agree to it. I don't let him even finish asking the question before I yelled YES!!!! I signed the paper saying I agreed, and that following Tuesday I went before the judge to get my sentencing on the dunk, which would be either 20, 30, or 45 days. If he says 20 or 30 then im leaving when I get back from court....but he gave me the 45 day dunk which was STILL A BLESSING, but I only had 43 days built up, so I was going to have to sit another 2 days. Once I got back to my cell and my mind had settled down, it hit me that God didn't want me leaving that today because I still needed to finish up working on my PP Plan. I had all these things listed on there to help me in finding jobs, or saving money, or doing things for others. But it was a bible verse that I read the same night I came back from court as I was marking another day off the calendar that put EVERYTHING into perspective for me. 1 Corinthians 15:33 "Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character". I knew the moment I read that, that God was speaking to me and telling me that I would never progress in life as long as I continued keeping bad company. I was so focused on finding a job, or saving money for something, or helping another person, that I overlooked the one main aspect of my life that had kept me coming back to jail. I KNEW that I was a person of good character, but that character is buried down inside of you when you surround yourself with bad company. I have to spend a lot of time by myself in order to avoid the bad company, but its kept me out of jail and allowed me to be home for Christmas with my family