freshman. They didn’t have a lot of interaction, but they were in band together and when he played football he would usually see her in the bleachers. Ted knew Mary Lynn well enough to know that she had always been a Christian, and he respected her back before his fall, when they were both upstanding students at school. But what was she doing here now? As he sat down at the window and picked up the phone, he noticed a Bible sitting on his side of the glass.
“Mary Lynn?” he opened the conversation, “to what do I owe the privilege?”
Mary Lynn tried to smile, but she was obviously distressed to see him… like this. “Ted, I know you don’t believe in God,” she said, “but I’ve been praying for you ever since your parents got divorced. I told mom I didn’t think… I didn’t think you were in a very good place spiritually…”
“Well I don’t think your prayers have been working.” Ted replied, “As you can see, I’m not in a very good place physically either...”
“The Lord works in mysterious ways, Ted,” Mary Lynn countered. “This may be God’s way of making you slow down. He loves you more than you know. I think He has some pretty special plans yet for your life if you’ll listen to him.” She glanced down at the Bible and tapped on the window pointing to it. “Officer Murphy said I could give you this.”
Ted glanced up at the young guard, who looked like he was barely out of the academy. “Well… thank you Officer Murphy…” he said sarcastically. Officer Murphy nodded. Looking back at Mary Lynn, Ted picked up the Bible and said, “Thanks Mary Lynn, but I’m not going to have time to read this whole thing, and I get bored when they start with the genealogy and stuff...”
“Start with the book of James,” she interrupted. “It’s my favorite, it’s what I was reading when God told me to bring this to you.” Ted looked at Mary Lynn, a bit surprised now. She went on, “When you get out, I’d like to invite you to my church.”
“They get a lot of convicts there, do they?” Ted quipped.
“They get a lot of sinners who need Jesus,” Mary Lynn said calmly.
“Mary Lynn,” Ted said suddenly humbled, “I’m 23 years old and sitting in jail. All of my friends are graduating college and getting married. I’ll never be anything but worthless.”
“I’ll continue praying for you.” was all she said.
As they said goodbye, Ted picked up the Bible and headed back to his cell. There weren’t a lot of things Ted had in jail, but one thing he had in abundance was time. Although he fought it for a couple of days, eventually his curiosity got the better of him and Ted opened up his Bible to the book of James.
‘Consider it pure joy… whenever you face trials?’ Ted frowned as he read the words. “This guy sounds crazy,” he thought. But as he read on, the words started making sense. ‘Blessed is the one who perseveres… because… that person will receive the crown of life…’ Suddenly Ted was intrigued and he kept reading. As he went through the chapters, his spirit was awakened. ‘Faith and deeds’, ‘taming the tongue’, ‘true wisdom’… it was like James was talking directly to Ted. By the time he got to ‘submitting yourself to God’, Ted couldn't hold back the tears. And when he read the ‘prayer of faith’ at the end, Ted looked up at the ceiling as if there was someone standing there watching him. “Okay God,” he said, wiping the tears from his cheeks, “I’m listening. What is it you want to tell me?”
The Bible started to fall out of Ted’s hands, and he barely caught it before it hit the floor. As he set it back on his lap, he noticed that he had lost his place, but his hand had caught the Bible at the start of the book of Romans. “Fair enough,” Ted said as he began reading Romans. He read it from start to finish, then went on to First and Second Corinthians, then through Galatians. By then, it was time for dinner. Ted put the Bible on his bed and went to the mess hall. He never looked at anyone when he ate, and this time was no different. Except now it was because he had some thinking to do. As he got his tray and sat down as far from anyone else as he could get, he bowed his head and said his first prayer. “God, I don’t even know what I need. Can you show me? Can you help me?” Ted ate his dinner alone and in silence, thinking about what he had read. Eventually he came to the conclusion that he needed to read the Gospels when he got back to his cell. He needed to know the story of Jesus.
And that’s what he did. When Ted got back to his cell, he opened up his Bible and read through all four gospels in order. That night, before he went to bed, Ted Kinney gave his heart to Jesus. Alone and in a jail cell, he had reached the end of his rope and gave God the only thing he had left to give.
Over the next few weeks, Ted read the entire New Testament through several times. He practically had half of it memorized by the time he got out. But more importantly, he had a new lease on life. The first thing he did when he left the jail was stand there and enjoy the breeze on his face. He didn’t have anywhere special to go, but it was nice knowing that he could go wherever he wanted to now. First things first; Ted had lost both his job and his driver’s license in that last drunk driving debacle. He needed to get a job and it had to be within walking distance of his apartment.
As he hitched his way back home, Ted’s mind was running in a dozen different directions, but he found himself unable to hide a smile. He didn’t have anything but a few clothes and a Bible, but he had hope for the first time in a long time, and that kept him going. When he finally got back to his apartment, Ted looked around and saw a few restaurants within walking distance. After some very honest and humbling job interviews, Ted landed two part-time jobs. One as a dishwasher and one as a morning prep worker at a fast food restaurant. It was a far cry from the bartending gig he had before he was arrested, but it was honest work.
Ted put in the hours and worked hard. Neither of his supervisors was sorry they had taken a chance on this former convict. Soon he moved up from dishwasher to busboy, then to waiter. At that point he was hired full time, and could resign his part-time morning prep job. It was also about this time that Ted got his driver’s license back and began attending church. Whenever the church doors were open, Ted was there - Sunday morning service, Tuesday night Bible study, Wednesday night service, Friday morning prayer breakfast - he couldn’t get enough. And he was in a Sunday school class with other people his age (most of whom were young professionals just a few years out of college). It didn’t take long for Ted to look into going back to school himself. And at the age of 24, he applied for and was accepted into a small community college in-state. He took out student loans and got a few need-based grants, then moved into a dorm on campus.
Although he was originally accepted on probationary status due to his past, Ted worked hard to prove his worth. His first year, he washed dishes in the cafeteria as part of his ‘work-study’ duties, not having much of a life outside of that and studying. Ted was rewarded with a 4.0 grade point average that fall semester and released from probationary status. The spring semester, Ted took a music class and learned how to play guitar, eventually becoming a regular on the worship team that played at Chapel. That summer, a great uncle Ted never knew about died, and he left Ted $200. Ted had been borrowing the school’s guitar, but he knew he needed one of his own, so he took his $200 to a local pawn shop that was going out of business. By the time he arrived, the place was nearly empty. The only thing left was an old guitar that the owner had found in a back room that morning.
“You go to the college here?” the owner asked.
“Yeah,” Ted said, “I play on the worship team for Chapel.”
The owner looked at Ted, then looked at the guitar, then looked back at Ted. “Two hundred dollars,” he said.
Ted smiled and handed the man his money.
By his second year, Ted was asked to be an assistant to one of the professors to help grade papers and tutor other students who were struggling. By the third year, Ted was such a model student that he wa
s asked to be a Resident Assistant (RA). He couldn’t help but think of the story of Joshua in Egypt - no matter what he did, God was blessing him. It was also that third year that he met the woman who would be his wife. They met in a Bible study group that Ted was leading and hit it off immediately. By Ted’s senior year, he was the Head Resident Assistant, and was engaged to be married.
Five years earlier, Ted thought his life had passed him by. But here he was at the age of 29, with a college degree, a new bride and a new purpose. He and his wife moved to the town where she grew up, which was in the same county as where Ted grew up. He got a job and moved up in the business, and within a year or two his wife had their first daughter. They visited several churches, but never found one where they felt like they belonged. Then Ted remembered Mary Lynn’s invitation, and he told his wife they needed to try Renaissance.
Ted and his wife bundled up their baby girl and attended their first service at Renaissance the next Sunday. His wife knew several people who attended there, but Ted only knew one, and he didn’t see Mary Lynn that morning until she stepped onstage to play piano. The music was inspiring, the message was well presented and the