Charles Colson died two days ago, and like so many, I have been thinking a lot about him. What a truly remarkable man. The newspaper's first words described the man he was: "the 'evil genius' of the Nixon administration" who spent nearly a year in prison for a Watergate related conviction. In 1972 the Washington Post wrote that he was "one of the most powerful presidential aides, variously described as a troubleshooter and as a 'master of dirty tricks.'" In other words, he was one mean, tough, hard-nosed, powerful, prideful dude--and I have no doubt had I ever met him, I would have disliked him immensely.
But that is the man he once was. That was the man he was before he met Christ. Before he went to prison. Before he was changed completely and eternally. Before he began his life's work of ministering in prisons and to prisoners and their families.
The man he became was a man of honor and conviction who loved God and loved the poorest and least of the least--the downtrodden and imprisoned and wretched. Again, the newspaper put it succinctly: "But Charles "Chuck" Colson spent the next 35 years steadfast in his efforts to evangelize to a part of society scorned just as he was. And he became known perhaps just as much for his efforts to minister to prison inmates as for his infamy with Watergate."
How well I remember going to hear Charles Colson speak many years ago at First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro. My parents took me--it was not terribly long after he had written his wonderful book, Born Again. Many of us were still a bit skeptical (well, maybe a lot skeptical!)--was this Christianity stuff for real? Could a leopard truly change his spots? Could Christ truly change a man that profoundly?
And the answer I learned that night was yes. For in the Lord Jesus, Colson truly was a new man and his faith was for real. You simply cannot argue with a changed life and with a testimony of what Christ can do with a broken, ugly life. Isn't it always in the broken places in our own lives that He can most powerfully bring transformation and healing and ultimately hope? Sure, it's painful. But it's so beautiful to behold. And there simply is nothing more powerful.
Many years later, I heard Colson himself say that nothing he did in the first 41 years of his life, even with his office next to the president, could compare to what God did with his brokenness. Look at the ministry of Prison Fellowship--who would have thought! God takes the broken places in your life, like failure and prison, and uses them in ways you could never imagine. "Laying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it's not prosperity or pleasure that's important, but the maturing of the soul."
"At your lowest depths," Colson declared, "God may be preparing you for the greatest thing you'll ever do." But it will invariably arise out of the broken, scarred, imperfect places in your life, for when we are weak, then in Christ we are strong. It has been said that God cannot use a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply. Pain and failure and sorrow deepen us, season us, grow us, ennoble us. It's not fun. It's not pretty. But it's true and ultimately, He makes all things beautiful in His time... His time, not our time.
Colson had his critics, his doubters, to be sure. But look at his life since his conversion--a changed life speaks for itself. I read that the Boston Globe wrote facetiously in 1973 "If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everyone." When I saw those words, I whispered, "Yes! But that's just it--you got it! There is hope for ALL of us--from the liar to the murderer to the selfish to the greedy to the swindler to the worst of the worst. From the likes of Charles Colson to the likes of me. That is what Christ can do!"
So thank You Lord for the life of this good man. An imperfect man--just as we all are--but a truly great man used mightily by You. A man who in giving his life away, truly found it again. And now, he is truly Living--with a capital "L." Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind but now I see. To the God of all grace who saves wretches like you and me, and who changes hearts and lives and destinies, be all the glory.
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