Written by Chaplain Luke Hixson, Shiawassee County Jail
I met Jay in the Shiawassee County Jail. He was 42 and had grown up strong, being drafted to play professional hockey. His heart became caught up in the pleasures that the world could bring, and he wasn’t prepared for an injury that would end his career and introduce him to opiates. He lost a part of his identity and was introduced to addiction. He began falling into addiction.
Jay’s life was spinning out of control and the only thing that satisfied him was self-pleasure at the cost of everything else. Jay lied, hurt his family, exploited his friends, and was difficult to get along with. He was shutting off and shutting down. Jay made good money, but much of that went into his habit. He once told me that if his wife knew how much money had really been spent on his addictions, she would kill him. There was no way to hold everything together and things began breaking at the seams.
He found himself in the Genesee County Jail where his heart started opening up to the Lord. He remembered his grandparents’ faith, and how they preached the love of God into his heart. Inside Genesee he got his hands on a Christian self-help book, but couldn’t bring himself to open up the Bible. He was released and went back home, but his life quickly returned to addiction.
It was only a few weeks before he was picked up by police and dropped in the Shiawassee County Jail. He found himself housed with men who were rejoicing in the very things that were breaking his life. He couldn’t find joy anymore, he tasted from the cup of wickedness and found it to be a sweet wine to the tongue but a bitter poison to the body.
Jay started coming to church. He first walked into Sunday service with a saunter, his head was lifted back – it was like he was saying, “I’m coming here, but you’re not going to get me.” I love when people challenge the one true God. He began to break down so that he could open up. I watched the Word of God wash over him, and I saw him begin to see the goodness of God and the wickedness of the sin that fills our world. We had a one-to-one and Jay couldn’t hold it together. We wept and he realized that he could not ever make up for his sins, but that Jesus had died for him and set him free to live for God. Jay gave his heart and his life to Jesus Christ.
We spent the next few months rejoicing in the Word, fellowshipping in love and truth. We said we loved each other and meant it, hugged, cried, we became true brothers. Jay was a changed man, a new man – and it changed everything. He began to transform the cell he was in, and they came to love Jesus more through Jay’s ministry.
On the day he was supposed to be released, his mother called to say that another county jail wanted to take Jay, he wouldn’t be going home to his wife and children. He was crushed.
The next morning Jay woke up with joy in his heart. He spent the morning with his cellmates, waiting to be taken to a new jail. One of the deputies came, but told him that instead, he was going home. Jay was released and everyone in his life saw a new man. There was something different about him. He talked, looked, and acted differently.
We spent many hours over the next few weeks talking about the Lord, the gospel, the changes in our lives – and the future and opportunities we would have to serve the Lord together. In November, Jay and his family attended my church for the first time. I whispered to Jay during service, “It doesn’t get better than this, to worship the Lord with your family.” He smiled and said, “I know.”
One of our brothers in Christ, Doug, had been released into a mental health rehab in Mason. He needed winter clothing. Jay and I got some clothes and planned to meet and take them to Doug. We met and spent hours in fellowship. We discussed the need for true intimate fellowship in Christ, and how we needed to share in each other’s burdens, and confess our sins so we might heal by ministering to each other in Christ. We rejoiced as Jay told me about his new life – relationships reawakening with his parents and children, and the new love he shared with his wife. We were planning a wedding ceremony, so he could make a covenant with God about the blessing that was his wife. After a few hours we dropped the clothes to Doug and spent time with him. My heart was grateful to minister with my brothers.
Chaplain Luke, Doug, and Jay.
As we walked back to our cars, I hugged Jay and told him I loved him. Twenty minutes later Jay called saying, “I can’t tell you how great it feels to do things for the Lord! I told my dad that I want to serve the Lord with all of my life and it just knocked his socks off.” We rejoiced about serving together in God’s name and looked forward to spending Sunday at church together. I woke up the next morning and saw a message from Nancy, Jay’s mother. He passed away that morning.
We don’t know why Jay passed, but we know God brought him home to be with Him and that God is still good – even though we feel such pain and sorrow in this temporary parting. My eyes have been opened to how close some people are to Jesus and we don’t even know it. I had no idea Jay was going home to the Lord so soon. What if we had never talked about the Lord together, where would he be?
But I know where Jay is now. The Lord said, “Do not build up treasure on earth, but build up for yourselves treasure in heaven.”
Jay is a piece of my treasure in heaven.
May the love of Jesus Christ carry you over every challenge and through every moment, may His embrace protect you from every one of the enemies arrows, and may your tongue always sing of the goodness of God all of the days of your life.