Thank you for sharing this good news today. I hope that George is provided with all the necessary tools to thrive when he is released. Kudos to the judge who has offered George the opportunity to partner with him to help other disenfranchised young men overcome their adversities. This blessing has the potential to multiply many times over.
This reflection is so important today, a day when a 14-yr old boy killed 4 and wounded 9 at his school in Georgia. It could have been anywhere and is everywhere USA. But he is still a boy, unformed, not an adult. Where were the adults who should have been protecting him. For in protecting him, they would have saved those innocent lives
Nadia , thanks for the post, but I was crushed by todays school shooting , and equally distressed by the statement by the GBI director saying that this 14 year old child would be tried as an adult😡
I imagine those two SCOTUS cases were argued and won by Brian Stevenson founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. If you haven’t watched the movie “Just Mercy” you should see how the EJI started!
Wow, something joyful happened yesterday and I’m so grateful you shared that with us Nadia. George’s story of rebuilding and renewal is so inspiring - what a gift his life is to the world!
Thanks for the good news! I’m confused by your statement at the end that irreparable corruption exists. I understand some individuals may continue to be a danger to society and so society is safer with them remaining locked up. But that can’t mean they are irreparably corrupted, can it? I thought repair/grace/resurrection can happen at anytime in anyone (even if most humans, and our justice system, can’t effectively judge that, or respond). I thought you can’t earn God’s grace or mercy with good deeds and thus can’t be kept from it through misdeeds/crime/s. Maybe repair is just a legal/worldly concept, and on a spiritual level, our core/soul has always been perfect (a piece of god) and no repair can occur; the light can just finally shine through. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks, Robbie
Thanks for asking the question. I too was intrigued and confused by the concept of “irreparable corruption”. I appreciate your thoughts on”repair/grace/resurrection” and want to believe all are possible for anyone at some point in a lifetime. A belief that there is a spark of light or the Holy Spirit in all sentient beings regardless of egregious behaviors and actions.
Yet, there are psychopaths/sociopaths that appear to lack the ability to access that God given quality? People that are incapable of feeling empathy or remorse. Perhaps it is not mine to know or to judge. It is one of the many mysteries and paradoxes of this human experience. Can we hold both as possibilities at the same time?
I have long believed that our spirit, our essence is pure, but it can be obscured by life experiences. We may or may not reclaim it while we are in a human form. But that is the part that lives on and is of God.
I remember clearly coming to this understanding or “knowing” about 10 years after my father died. After his death we discovered some shocking secrets that were hard to reconcile and forgive. Certainly they fit the category of irreparable corruption in my mind. Yet as I grappled with my convoluted grief over the years, my anger and hurt and confusion shifted and evolved. I felt that despite my father’s “sins” during his human lifetime, his purer spirit was preserved and lived on. I was young we he died and didn’t have the tools to help me process my feelings. So this possibility of redemption was my first true understanding of Grace. And a glimpse into a heaven or hell beyond what I’d conceived of in Sunday school.
And as for my own irreparable corruption, I like to believe that it too does not reflect my true essence and that there is redemption and Grace for me as well.
Thank you for sharing. I too had the same questions.
“He said he would spend every day for the rest of his life seeking to be a positive force for those around him whether those days be inside of a prison or out.”
I wonder if repair means that the offender gets to get out back into the free world. It struck me when he said that he would be a positive force whether inside our outside of prison. Like I’m sure he wanted more than anything to get out but still he was humble and able to see that he could still do good on the inside. I dunno. That comforts me in some way. That even within the confines of a flawed and broken system, good can still happen even if it doesn’t look good. I’m not sure if I am making sense but those are my two cents.
My 30 year old, non-violent, autistic, addict, mentally ill son is going to prison... it’s been a 18 year slow motion train wreck. He is, has been, incapable of “normal” functioning.
My prayer is that, within the strict structure of prison, he will evolve into a miracle like George.
He had a genius level gift for writing within that troubled mind.
Glory be! My husband is a former inmate as a casualty of the war on drugs. Prison is harsh and to hear this story of transformation and mercy is so wonderful. Your comments on irreparable corruption hit home seeing as I'm guilty of something on that list. I've been working six years to repair the consequences of that corruption and it is true that it often can be repaired. It's slow and hard and painful, but there is healing. 💗
Thank you for sharing this! It’s very good news on a very sad news day where a 14 yr old will be charged as an adult. I love the judge saying his brain hadn’t been fully formed because I just said that about this kid. I think most children make bad choices a lot, I know I did. Some just have stronger consequences. In the end forgiveness is key!
Nadia, can irreparable corruption be leveled at a business? Take Bayer - for example, a household name with a history of helping the nazis. Mercedes Benz I believe is another example. Pacific Gas and electric poisoned - for generations- people living in Hinkley California with hexavalent chromium while all the while telling the population how GOOD that substance was for them. (See: Erin Brokovich)
What about a nation? Slavery? The civil war? Jim Crow? The trail of tears? Native Americans who took their slaves With them on the trail of tears?
Nothing is irreparable in the eyes of God - even when we disagree vehemently.
That being said, George sounds like a wonderful man. But how many of us would have been George should the situations and circumstances of life be just a little bit different? How many of us would have been the one to kill like his partner did?
Therefore by the Grace of God go I. It’s sheer dumb luck.
I think of the Georgia shooting. 14 years old. What does he know? His brain isn’t fully developed yet. Men’s don’t mature until after their 21st birthday. We know this. And yet the devastation wrought is unconscionable.
It’s also equally unconscionable that we as a nation refuse to listen to 85 percent of this nation who agree with the idea that we need common sense gun legislation. They want to solely pin this on the father who bought him the weapon but at the end of the day, are we not - as a nation- also culpable in this?
Thank you for sharing this good news today. I hope that George is provided with all the necessary tools to thrive when he is released. Kudos to the judge who has offered George the opportunity to partner with him to help other disenfranchised young men overcome their adversities. This blessing has the potential to multiply many times over.
This reflection is so important today, a day when a 14-yr old boy killed 4 and wounded 9 at his school in Georgia. It could have been anywhere and is everywhere USA. But he is still a boy, unformed, not an adult. Where were the adults who should have been protecting him. For in protecting him, they would have saved those innocent lives
Nadia , thanks for the post, but I was crushed by todays school shooting , and equally distressed by the statement by the GBI director saying that this 14 year old child would be tried as an adult😡
I imagine those two SCOTUS cases were argued and won by Brian Stevenson founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. If you haven’t watched the movie “Just Mercy” you should see how the EJI started!
Welp, that made me cry. Thanks for the good news!
Wow, something joyful happened yesterday and I’m so grateful you shared that with us Nadia. George’s story of rebuilding and renewal is so inspiring - what a gift his life is to the world!
Thanks for the good news! I’m confused by your statement at the end that irreparable corruption exists. I understand some individuals may continue to be a danger to society and so society is safer with them remaining locked up. But that can’t mean they are irreparably corrupted, can it? I thought repair/grace/resurrection can happen at anytime in anyone (even if most humans, and our justice system, can’t effectively judge that, or respond). I thought you can’t earn God’s grace or mercy with good deeds and thus can’t be kept from it through misdeeds/crime/s. Maybe repair is just a legal/worldly concept, and on a spiritual level, our core/soul has always been perfect (a piece of god) and no repair can occur; the light can just finally shine through. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks, Robbie
Thanks for asking the question. I too was intrigued and confused by the concept of “irreparable corruption”. I appreciate your thoughts on”repair/grace/resurrection” and want to believe all are possible for anyone at some point in a lifetime. A belief that there is a spark of light or the Holy Spirit in all sentient beings regardless of egregious behaviors and actions.
Yet, there are psychopaths/sociopaths that appear to lack the ability to access that God given quality? People that are incapable of feeling empathy or remorse. Perhaps it is not mine to know or to judge. It is one of the many mysteries and paradoxes of this human experience. Can we hold both as possibilities at the same time?
I have long believed that our spirit, our essence is pure, but it can be obscured by life experiences. We may or may not reclaim it while we are in a human form. But that is the part that lives on and is of God.
I remember clearly coming to this understanding or “knowing” about 10 years after my father died. After his death we discovered some shocking secrets that were hard to reconcile and forgive. Certainly they fit the category of irreparable corruption in my mind. Yet as I grappled with my convoluted grief over the years, my anger and hurt and confusion shifted and evolved. I felt that despite my father’s “sins” during his human lifetime, his purer spirit was preserved and lived on. I was young we he died and didn’t have the tools to help me process my feelings. So this possibility of redemption was my first true understanding of Grace. And a glimpse into a heaven or hell beyond what I’d conceived of in Sunday school.
And as for my own irreparable corruption, I like to believe that it too does not reflect my true essence and that there is redemption and Grace for me as well.
Thank you for sharing. I too had the same questions.
“He said he would spend every day for the rest of his life seeking to be a positive force for those around him whether those days be inside of a prison or out.”
I wonder if repair means that the offender gets to get out back into the free world. It struck me when he said that he would be a positive force whether inside our outside of prison. Like I’m sure he wanted more than anything to get out but still he was humble and able to see that he could still do good on the inside. I dunno. That comforts me in some way. That even within the confines of a flawed and broken system, good can still happen even if it doesn’t look good. I’m not sure if I am making sense but those are my two cents.
My 30 year old, non-violent, autistic, addict, mentally ill son is going to prison... it’s been a 18 year slow motion train wreck. He is, has been, incapable of “normal” functioning.
My prayer is that, within the strict structure of prison, he will evolve into a miracle like George.
He had a genius level gift for writing within that troubled mind.
His heart wants to serve mankind.
Nadia, thanks so much for this story ❤️
I’m with you, hoping George will agree to be interviewed. I think I could learn a lot from him. Thanks for sharing some humanity.
Amazing! Congratulations to George and I hope the transition goes smoothly and quickly.
Glory be! My husband is a former inmate as a casualty of the war on drugs. Prison is harsh and to hear this story of transformation and mercy is so wonderful. Your comments on irreparable corruption hit home seeing as I'm guilty of something on that list. I've been working six years to repair the consequences of that corruption and it is true that it often can be repaired. It's slow and hard and painful, but there is healing. 💗
This story made me cry. Thank God for compassionate judges. And thank God for you spreading the Good News!
Thank you for sharing this! It’s very good news on a very sad news day where a 14 yr old will be charged as an adult. I love the judge saying his brain hadn’t been fully formed because I just said that about this kid. I think most children make bad choices a lot, I know I did. Some just have stronger consequences. In the end forgiveness is key!
Thank you for sharing this GOOD NEWS, Pastor Nadia! Oh how my soul needed it.
May God bless George and everyone involved and also all who will be helped in the future. 🙏🏻✝️❤️
Thank you for sharing this! What a reminder about HOPE.
Very moving. Thank you 💙
Nadia, can irreparable corruption be leveled at a business? Take Bayer - for example, a household name with a history of helping the nazis. Mercedes Benz I believe is another example. Pacific Gas and electric poisoned - for generations- people living in Hinkley California with hexavalent chromium while all the while telling the population how GOOD that substance was for them. (See: Erin Brokovich)
What about a nation? Slavery? The civil war? Jim Crow? The trail of tears? Native Americans who took their slaves With them on the trail of tears?
Nothing is irreparable in the eyes of God - even when we disagree vehemently.
That being said, George sounds like a wonderful man. But how many of us would have been George should the situations and circumstances of life be just a little bit different? How many of us would have been the one to kill like his partner did?
Therefore by the Grace of God go I. It’s sheer dumb luck.
I think of the Georgia shooting. 14 years old. What does he know? His brain isn’t fully developed yet. Men’s don’t mature until after their 21st birthday. We know this. And yet the devastation wrought is unconscionable.
It’s also equally unconscionable that we as a nation refuse to listen to 85 percent of this nation who agree with the idea that we need common sense gun legislation. They want to solely pin this on the father who bought him the weapon but at the end of the day, are we not - as a nation- also culpable in this?
Love ya, Pastor.
Thank you for sharing. Tears.