Sunday, February 24, 2002
Sunday, February 24, 2002
Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
While in prison Shirley decided to turn her life around. She became involved with an
organization called New Hope, which seeks to use ex-offenders to help offenders get their
heads on right. When Shirley left prison she was a new Christian. She began to do volunteer
work for the church. Shirley organized and administered a food pantry for a church
congregation; she ran an after-school program and a summer camp for children. Her story
doesn't end there. At fifty-one years of age Shirley felt God call her into a life of full-time
service to the church. "I knew exactly what had happened," Shirley says, "and I knew that I
had been touched and that I was in the presence of God." That was truly a special moment in
her life. Shirley accepted God's call, went to college, and is today working for an
interdenominational coalition. Shirley's ministry puts into action her beliefs and values about
God.
(1
John 3.18
NRSV)
Shirley Rock's life led her through many dark nights of the soul. When she was young, her
parents sought to break up her relationship with her boyfriend. Shirley ran away from home
and married her boyfriend in spite of her parents. Before too long her new husband was
arrested. Shirley was all alone with nowhere to turn. "That was the period in my life that I really
experienced being homeless and being on the street," she says, "being hungry and finding
there's not a lot of milk and peaches and kindness and love and honey in this world." When
desperation set in she turned to crime and was imprisoned. The day she heard the prison
gates slam behind her, she said, was the
lowest point in her life.
Loving God, may I hear your call for my life and put my belief in you into action. Amen.
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