“But I LIKE Cream And Splenda In My McDonald’s Coffee!”

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Tony Casson

I like McDonald’s coffee. When I do buy coffee at McDonald’s, I always order a large and then I ask for 5 creamers and 2 packets of Splenda.

There you have it. I confess. I am not ashamed, or afraid to admit it. That’s the way I drink it. I like it. I enjoy it. I think it tastes good.

When people tell me they like Starbuck’s coffee and they only drink it black, I don’t say anything. I don’t presume it to be my duty to tell them they are doing it wrong, that they are wasting their money, or that they don’t truly understand coffee. But for some unfathomable reason, let me tell someone I LIKE cream and Splenda in my McDonald’s coffee, and I often receive a lecture about where I can buy good coffee, or on how bad McDonald’s coffee is, or how that’s not the way you’re supposed to really drink coffee to enjoy it.

The truth of the matter is, I LIKE cream and Splenda in my McDonald’s coffee, so why can’t I just enjoy what I like without criticism, suggestions, or unsolicited advice?

I’m not perfect but I don’t tell people they should like blue if they like red. I don’t tell people they should like steak if they enjoy chicken. And I don’t tell people that they should drink Starbuck’s or any other brand or type of coffee if they happen to like McDonald’s coffee.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in His own image. But if that’s the case, why are we so different?

Well, the truth is, we’re not. But then, we are, and if that sounds contradictory or confusing, it really isn’t. In fact, it is quite simple. We are all the same in the opportunity we have to love God, and to serve Him. As a church elder explained to me recently, “God gives every man the same opportunity to love him and serve him irrespective of his skills or talents. Whether you are Einstein or a person with a 50 IQ, both have the same opportunity to serve Him.”

God expects us to all use that opportunity well. We don’t, of course, but that fact is not where we are different. We are different in the gifts, abilities, and talents God gives us. He who has received more in the way of these things is expected to do more in service to Him. Again, we don’t of course, but that doesn’t make us different.

That only makes us foolish.

Whether we are born in this country or another; whether we are male or female; no matter what our skin color is; no matter the shape of our eyes, the color or texture of our hair, or the language we speak; no matter the work we do, or the education we have, or haven’t, received; no matter if we like meat, or if we prefer vegetables; no matter if we prefer hot, dry climates, or cool, damp ones; in spite of all of these things, we are – each and every one of us – created in the image of God and are therefore the same. We are all, each and every one of us, provided with the same opportunity to love, serve, and glorify God.

All of the things I mentioned above are not differences of any significance to God. No two oak trees are exactly the same, no two daffodils are exactly the same, and no two eagles are exactly the same. And yet they are.

All human beings are created in the image of God. We are all the same. It is time we all stopped focusing on what we perceive as being major differences in people: Skin color; age; gender; ethnicity; language. These are not differences in God’s eyes. Where we need to focus our attention, and our hearts, is on the gifts, talents, and abilities God gave us and pray daily for guidance in using them to serve God and glorify His name.

When we begin doing that, this world will become more like the place God intended it to be when He created it, and less like the place evil has helped it become.

And people will stop criticizing me because I LIKE cream and Splenda in my McDonald’s coffee.

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“Seeing The Suffering”

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Tony Casson

One of the benefits of enduring our own suffering, regardless of the origin, is the ability it gives us to see the suffering in others and to respond to it with empathy. None of us enjoys suffering, but we must always consider the suffering that Jesus Christ did on our behalf, and we must always think about the suffering that others endure.

Something to consider is the daily devotion I wrote for February 29 in my book “Today Is….A Gift From God”, which follows:

*******

February 29

TODAY IS…

a good day to drink from your own cup of suffering.

“But Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given Me?’” John 18:11 NLT

Jesus was brought into the world for a specific purpose. He knew what that purpose was and knew what would be required of Him to achieve that purpose. When Judas betrayed Him, Jesus had already seen it and knew that it signified the beginning of the end of His time on earth. He was aware also of the pain, suffering, humiliation and cruel death that awaited Him. “The cup” signified all of these things and Jesus knew that He would have to “drink” from it to fulfill His purpose on earth.

Jesus Christ knew that everything He faced was required if the world was to have hope, so He drank from His “cup” with a thirst that could only be quenched by His ultimate death.

The courage and faith in His Father that Jesus demonstrated should be all the inspiration the rest of us need to help us to thankfully drink from our own “cups of suffering.” The acceptance of Jesus Christ as our savior gives us the certain knowledge that our fate will be the same as that of Jesus when our own cups are finally emptied: When we die, we will be rewarded with a perfect life everlasting with God.

It is understandable that with our human frailties, we often become wrapped up in our own little worlds. We allow ourselves to think, “Certainly no one’s problems are as serious as mine. Certainly no one else has to suffer in this life as much as I do.” However, when we stop to pray about our lives and think about other people, we become acutely aware that many people have considerably larger “cups” to drink from than ours.

Perhaps if we reached out to help someone steady their cup, we may find that ours contains less when we pick it back up again.

Perhaps if we are more accepting of our circumstances, less quick to complain, and not as prone to think, “Oh, woe is me!”, we will find ourselves embracing our “cups” with a peaceful heart and the knowledge of the reward that awaits us in the future.

No matter how full of suffering we imagine our own “cups” to be, they are empty compared to the cup of suffering that Jesus Christ drank from before He died for us.

Pick up your cup of suffering and raise it to the Lord and say, “Since You died for me, Jesus, the least I can do is live for You.”

*******

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“Self-Imposed Suffering”

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Tony Casson

“And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.”  Judges 6:6 English Standard Version (ESV)

“Our heavenly Father understands our disappointment, suffering, pain, fear, and doubt. He is always there to encourage our hearts and help us understand that He’s sufficient for all of our needs. When I accepted this as an absolute truth in my life, I found that my worrying stopped.”   Charles Stanley

†

My Mother suffered greatly due to physical afflictions, especially later in her life.

She developed macular degeneration, which ultimately stole the effectiveness of her sight, rendering her legally blind. She also struggled for years with Paget’s disease. In people with Paget’s disease, there is an abnormal breakdown of bone tissue in specific areas. This is followed by abnormal bone formation where the new area of bone is larger, but weaker. In my Mother’s case, the disease was in her spine and it was accompanied by severe pain. In addition, she suffered spinal stenosis for years which caused a pathway housing nerves to narrow, putting pressure on those nerves causing still more pain.

At times, the combined effect was quite debilitating and most assuredly detracted considerably from the quality of the last 10-15 years of her life. Yes, my Mother suffered physically, and it was often painful to watch, but had done nothing to bring that suffering upon herself, and there was little, if anything she could have done to prevent it.

That was not the case with me.

It is extremely difficult for me to look in the rearview mirror of my life and find many places where I suffered in which the suffering was not brought on by myself. From the place I called ‘home’ for a little over 4 years – the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution – I could finally see with clarity the tremendous negative impact that my willful disobedience to God had on my life over the preceding 40 years.

But don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming God, and I am not saying that God punished me for being disobedient to Him.

He didn’t have to. I managed quite well on my own. Living a sinful lifestyle rained suffering down on me that was strictly a result of the lifestyle itself, not God’s reaction to that lifestyle.

Being self-centered, self-indulgent, self-absorbed, and self-destructive leads us to activities and actions that can have severe negative physical and emotional effects on us. Living impulsive lives where consequences and other people are ignored may provide us with the instant gratification we seek, but eventually our luck runs out and it suddenly becomes time to ‘pay the piper’.

And then we suffer.

Some of us drink, and sometimes we drink too much. Some of us drive after we have been drinking. Sometimes we drive after only having had ‘one or two’ drinks, but some of us have driven home so intoxicated we wake up the next day and think it is a miracle we made it home safely. Sometimes we get arrested for drunk driving. Sometimes someone gets killed.

And then we suffer.

Some of us indulge in recreational drug use. Many of us become addicted or dependent upon those drugs. Sometimes our jobs are affected by that abuse. Sometimes our families are destroyed because of that abuse. Sometimes people die as a result of that abuse.

And then we suffer.

Rather than build a relationship with God from which all other relationships can then flow, some of us succumb to temptations of the flesh, building meaningless, empty relationships. We live immoral, promiscuous lives. We turn to pornography because it is ‘acceptable’ in the eyes of our society. Sometimes relationships are destroyed. Sometime families are broken up and thrown into chaos. Sometimes uncontrolled rage caused by jealousy enters the picture and people are physically hurt. Sometimes people are even killed as a result of the offending behavior.

And then we suffer.

Just like the people of Israel, God tells us how to live our lives, but we don’t listen, and if we do listen, we only seem to remember what He teaches us until we become comfortable with ourselves again. Once that comfort level is reached, we regain confidence in our own ability to run our lives and the cycle begins again for us just as it did repeatedly with the Israelites.

For many of us, the reality that much of our suffering is self-imposed may be a tough reality to face, but God can help us to see that fact and, more importantly, He can then help us to use that suffering to move forward with our lives in a positive manner and in a way that gives Him glory.

Posted in Surviving Our Suffering | 1 Comment

Grow Up

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Tony Casson

I think this is a good place to ‘pull over’ and enjoy the view. This young lady shows some great wisdom here, I think. I hope you all agree. If you do, let her know. :-)

stephrheams's avatarThe Journey Through The Wall

“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” 1Corinthians13:11

A little over a week ago I went to a one day retreat at my church. I’ve gone to a lot of different things similar to it. Each time pouring out my heart about the same issues over and over again. Each time I think I’ve made more and more progress, but this time was different. I always go up for prayer at events like this. My thinking is always that even if I don’t feel like I need prayer, there’s a good chance I actually do and I’m just not aware of it. I just never want to pass up the opportunity. So I was going into this service with the same thinking. The first part of the teaching was about letting go of…

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“Embracing Our Suffering”

Posted on May 19, 2015 by Tony Casson

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Romans 5:2-5 ESV

“One thing you can’t hide – is when you’re crippled inside.”   John Lennon

In addition to ourselves, another major obstacle we allow to block the “Path to Freedom” is ‘suffering’. Suffering itself takes many forms and occurs as the result of a variety of reasons, and while we may not be able to hide when we are ‘crippled inside’, we can look to God for the strength to deal with it, grow as a result of it, use it to help us come to the aid of others who are hurting, and, ultimately, use our suffering to glorify God.

I had been ‘working’ on this series of articles for a week and had not progressed very far, and I could not figure out why. I wasn’t even sure for a while that this was a series I wanted to do. I mean, obviously there is much suffering around, and I have endured plenty of my own, but was it something that needed to be dealt with as a part of finding our way along the path that leads us to freedom?

The very first sentence of this article illustrates the answer I arrived at. Still, the subject itself is a difficult one. After all, in the end, what we really are asking God to do is help us  to embrace our suffering.

Say what? Embrace our suffering?

The truth is that we often allow our suffering to come between us and our relationship with the Lord: We blame Him for the suffering; We get angry at Him when He doesn’t remove it immediately upon our praying for relief from it; We allow ourselves to doubt our faith. After all, if we are followers of Christ and we treat others as Christ would have us treat them, bad things should not happen to us, right?

Of course, we all know the correct answer to this question is not the preferred one, and knowing that God does not spare us from suffering simply because we are His faithful followers is the first step we must take on this particular path of learning to embrace our suffering. If we look to the Holy Bible, we can find a vast amount of Scripture that will help us understand why God allows suffering at all, but we can also find God’s wisdom that will help us find the strength to deal with it, and guidance to help us use it for His glory by helping us to embrace it and use it to help others.

In recent days, I have been posting a series of articles in “The Oakdale Chronicles” titled “Giving A Voice To The Victims”, in which a young woman named Diane S. painfully describes her suffering in the face of her husband going to prison for 10 years. Diane suffers daily for something she had no part in, was not responsible for, and could have walked away from. Her story is testimony to how we can look to God for the strength to deal with our own suffering. I commend her for her determination and her courage, but she gives the credit to God for that and I thank God and praise Him for His faithfulness to her during this most difficult time.

While she continues to suffer, she seems to have embraced that suffering and through her writing is using it to help others, and that is not an easy thing. Let’s face it, it is hard enough to think about God when we are suffering, let alone other people.

Also in recent days, a man in his 50’s by the name of Darren McManus passed away. Darren entered the Spiritual Transformation Program at Central Union Mission around the same time I got out of prison and made the Mission my home. He was a short, wiry man with a serious expression and a deep, gravelly voice who had lived a life that few of us could imagine and suffered immeasurable physical pain as a result of that life. In addition, he had severe degenerative arthritis which greatly increased his overall suffering.

He and I lived for a time in the same dormitory at the Mission. I had my bunk tucked away at the end of the last row in the room, and his bunk was at the beginning of the middle row. Darren would have relatively good days where he could actually be quite physical, but there were many more times when the pain he experienced was quite debilitating and he would be relegated to bed rest. There were times when I would be in my bunk reading or writing and Darren would be unaware of my presence. I could hear him pray to God for relief from his pain, but the form the prayers took was quite powerful and humbling.

Darren always thanked God for opening his eyes, for allowing Him to see the path he should walk, and for His forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Not once did he ever blame God or display anger for his circumstances. At times, though, he would ask God for the death that would bring him to his Father and release him from his excruciating pain. He knew his pain would be removed from him upon entering the Kingdom of God, and it was that entry into his eternal home that Darren prayed for in what he thought were private moments. I never let him know that those moments were not as private as he had thought.

Darren did more than pray for release from his suffering. He embraced it. He used it to try to hold himself up to others as an example of how we can turn to God when we have completely turned against ourselves and, in doing that, we can live new lives with confidence of a future reward worth far more than anything we could possibly experience in this life.

In my book, “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, I write daily devotionals with varying themes. It is impossible to adequately compose such a book without at least one mention of suffering. Following is one such mention:

February 17

TODAY IS…

the ideal day to embrace your suffering.

“…for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name.” Acts 9:16 NASB

The subject of suffering comes up a lot in the Bible. It is a significant theme and it plays an important role in many of the lessons we must learn in order to grow in our faith. No one escapes unscathed. Suffering is present in everyone’s life to some degree. How it is viewed and how it is dealt with are important matters to consider in a Christian’s life.

Sometimes it is allowed to be a cause of doubt that creeps into our minds, casting a dark shadow on our hearts. “Why me, Lord?” some of us may ask. Or we may think that if God were truly kind and loving, He would not allow us to suffer at all. The importance of rejecting these and other negative thoughts cannot be stressed enough.

The truth of the matter is that regardless of what we experience in this life, it can be used for good; it can strengthen our faith and it can prepare us for a life of service to God. Rather than feel sorry for ourselves or doubt the Lord, our God, we should embrace our suffering, pray to God for strength to see us through it and ask Him to give us wisdom to learn from it and use what we have learned in service to Him.

We have all suffered. Some have suffered more than others and sometimes it is difficult for us to understand why we, in our faith, experience so much suffering while others of little or no faith at all seem to experience none. We cannot always understand why God does what He does. It is not always possible to fully appreciate why He allows certain things to occur in one life or another.

One of the most important people in the history of Christianity was the apostle Paul. His efforts to spread the Word of God are an amazing testament to his unwavering faith in Jesus Christ. However, studying Paul’s life teaches us that Paul endured indescribable persecution, pain and suffering as he traveled extensively, trying to show the way to the salvation Christ gave the world when He died on the cross.

Paul was stoned and left to die. He was whipped several times, beaten with rods, set adrift at sea and was shipwrecked three times. He spent time in prisons, was faced with robbers, dangerous weather and was often thirsty, hungry, cold and tired. He asked for nothing material from anyone. All he wanted for the suffering that he embraced in Jesus’ name was for the people he spoke with to open their hearts to Jesus Christ. “…I don’t want what you have – I want you…” (2 Corinthians 12:14b NLT).

Paul embraced his suffering because he knew what he was suffering for. He knew that the salvation of his soul and an eternal life in the presence of God was worth infinitely more than the inconvenient pain or sorrow of mere human suffering.

Embrace your suffering, even though it may be difficult to do so. Use your suffering as a tool to help you serve the Lord and you will turn that suffering into a gift of love for God. In so doing, you will thank Him for the suffering that Jesus endured as a gift for eternal peace, joy and happiness for you.

*******

As we learn to embrace our suffering and use it to help us continue along the path to freedom, we must also learn to be thankful for people like Diane and Darren who show us where we need to turn in times of our own suffering and how to allow our own suffering to enable us to help others embrace their own.

No one really wants to suffer, but, like Jesus, we must drink from our own cups of suffering at various times in our lives and for various reasons. Some of those reasons are totally beyond our control, and others are brought upon us by ourselves.

When this series continues, we will look at some of those. In the meantime, may God bless you all and keep you safe, and if you are suffering at this moment in any way, for any reason, look to God for His guidance in how to embrace it.

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“Today Is….A Great Day For Dinner And A Movie”

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Tony Casson

Sorry to disappoint you, but there is no dinner, and there is no movie. But there is a brief visit to another ‘Scenic Turnout” as I work on a new series of articles.

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The ‘dinner’ is a poem I wrote while in prison. OK, the ‘poem’ is really the lyrics to a song, but since I have no way to convey the melody that bangs around in my head, you will simply have to ‘dine’ on the words. I will not say the words were given to me by God, but they most certainly were inspired by the relationship with Him that was growing stronger every day when I originally wrote the words below. That relationship continues to grow on a daily basis, of course. Perhaps a tune will come to mind while you read the words to:

 “Battle Lines”

When I walked out the door, the devil was standing there waiting;

With his dead, icy eyes He stared at me, anticipating;

I returned his cold stare and I asked what he wanted to do;

He said “I think you know I have come all this way just for you.”

I looked straight at him and I said, “I must ask you to leave.

You are powerless here, for it’s in Jesus Christ I believe.”

He threw back his head and he laughed, then he looked back at me;

“When I’m finished with you, your faith will be gone, you will see.”

(Chorus)

The lines have been drawn

 It’s to Jesus I’m sworn

To the Lord I’ll forever be true.

I will fight to the death

To my very last breath

I will never surrender to you.

 

With the battle lines drawn I’ve taken my stance, I’ll not waver;

With the armor of God the odds are all stacked in my favor.

The ice in his eyes was replaced with the fires of hell;

I have been there before I remember the pain very well.

We draw back our swords and we circle to start our slow dance;

My faith is so strong that the evil one hasn’t a chance.

(Chorus)

 

The lines have been drawn

 It’s to Jesus I’m sworn

To the Lord I’ll forever be true.

I will fight to the death

To my very last breath

I will never surrender to you.

 

Now the devil is gone and I stand in the Light of the Lord;

With the battle lines drawn I have won with God’s power in my sword.

If you doubt the Lord’s strength, just fall to your knees now and pray;

Draw the lines for yourself, God will make you the victor today.

(Chorus)

The lines have been drawn

 It’s to Jesus I’m sworn

To the Lord I’ll forever be true.

I will fight to the death

To my very last breath

I will never surrender to you.

I will fight to the death

To my very last breath

I will never surrender to you.

©2012 Tony Casson

The ‘movie’ is a stop in “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”. Reprinted here is another of my personal favorites. This one is on service to others:

December 12

TODAY IS…

an excellent day to stop looking.

“Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing…”

James 2:15 NLT

How many of us have stood in front of an open refrigerator, staring at its contents long enough to draw the attention of parents or spouse and then closed the door and walked away? Certainly, if we haven’t done it ourselves, we know someone who has.

How many of us look at life in the same manner? We stare at it, seeing all of the pain, hunger, homelessness, hopelessness, and need and then “close the door” and go back to our televisions, video games, or computer screens. How often do we do something mindless, or nothing at all, because we are bored? Like standing in front of the refrigerator staring at 25 cubic feet of food and saying, “There is nothing to eat,” we look at a world with 7 billion souls and say, “There is nothing to do.”

God can help us see what we are looking at. God can help us become people who will turn to other people and say, “There is so much to do, won’t you please help?”

An attitude of service to others is very much in keeping with the teachings of Christ. Jesus’ brother James, who at one time found it difficult to even believe that Jesus was the Messiah, ultimately came to not only believe in Christ, but he also came to understand that along with that belief came a changing of the heart that would not only help us see those who are hungry, homeless, and in need, but would also make us very aware that seeing is not enough.

“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” (James 2:14 NLT).

Would we even want to be saved by a faith that allowed us to remain unseeing to the plight of those around us?

If we are truly people of faith, we will be so busy happily serving other people and looking for ways to help people to help themselves, that boredom will be a word long forgotten. Apathy will be something we fight instead of a term that can be used in a description of us.

All we have to do is call out to our Lord Jesus and ask Him to show us how to help. All we have to do is be willing to serve others with joy and in the name of Jesus Christ and we will never again stand in front of the refrigerator and say, “There is nothing to eat.” Not only will we see the food, we will see those with whom we should share it.

 

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“Perfect Prison Steps”

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Tony Casson

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” 

2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV

In talking with someone recently, I referred to my time at Oakdale FCI as ‘the perfect prison experience’. There was a brief look of surprised confusion that preceded the request to, “Explain that please.”

There is a somewhat cynical, yet broad public perception that ‘everyone’ in prison ‘finds God’. There are those, of course, who try to pose as having undergone a spiritual enlightenment, feeling that it will look good in their file. While in Oakdale, I didn’t try to determine whose faith was real and whose was posturing. That was revealed soon enough through their words and by their actions. Even when it was obvious there was a lack of genuine faith, it was still not my place to judge or comment. But even though there were a few who would fall into that group, most inmates didn’t bother to ‘fake faith’. The majority of people in prison are simply ‘doing time’.

There were those, of course, who actually had been brought to their knees by the lifestyle that caused them to be in prison in the first place. Those were the individuals who realized that prison afforded them the opportunity to focus on a relationship with Christ, and those who had actually waved their own “White Flag“ and surrendered to Him, made an important discovery: That there was freedom inside the confines of the fences surrounding the prison, and that freedom was what contributed to making my experience ‘perfect’.

Those who were posturing obviously didn’t really have faith, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”  (Hebrews 11:6 ESV)

The reward for me was the experience I had while I was in prison that I would come to call ‘perfect’. The reward for taking those steps necessary to seek God was having my eyes opened wide and finally learning to see outside of myself and the selfish, self-centered, self-destructive lifestyle and behavior that kept me a prisoner to sin. While my body may have been free for 56 years, my spirit was enslaved by my willingness to cover up the humiliation and pain of my youth letting satan guide my steps rather than taking refuge in God and letting Him be my guide.

As the years in prison wore on, the track in the prison recreation yard became a place of worship and praise. God was present with me and all those I walked with. He was a part of most conversations that took place as men who had exhibited an egregious disregard for decency struggled to take steps to a life that would offer them renewal and restoration, things which can come only from God.

We took the steps necessary to claim the promise that, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) If anyone wanted – indeed, needed – to be ‘new’, it was those of us who had betrayed decency, and taking the steps illuminated by God brought us closer to being those new men some of us sought to be.

In addition to the positive influence of the time spent walking on the ‘track’, I had the relative peace and solitude of my cell in Allen Unit. It was there, sitting at my desk while my ‘cellie’ was at work, that some of the biggest ‘steps’ were taken. It was there that I began writing “The Oakdale Chronicles”, and “TOC” was where I took my first tentative steps towards publicly proclaiming my faith.

That is not an easy thing to do for someone who started out as far away from God as I did when I began my journey, but slowly I became more comfortable and more confident. The time I spent sitting outside that cell in the mornings praying and reading the Bible contributed to that comfort and confidence. In addition, asking God to help me understand how I could drift so far from Him and allow myself to be used for my own destruction eventually gave me “TODAY IS….A Gift From God” as an answer.

The book itself was never written with any expectations of being a national bestseller (Although there wouldn’t be anything wrong with that). Instead, it is a vivid demonstration of how we can build a relationship with God and how He will help us to use the Bible to guide our lives here on earth if we will only give Him the opportunity!

The book gives glory to our great God and holds up His amazing power to do wonderful things within us when we allow Him free reign and, in doing so, deny it to satan, who has had it for so long and who used that free reign so effectively against us. His power, put to work within us, gives us the ability to take each and every step that is required to follow the path to eternal freedom.

I would never want to live my life in a manner which could cause me to go back to Oakdale FCI, or a place like it. At the same time, it is almost impossible for me to adequately describe the perfect prison experience that my steps there provided me with. Of course, if you find that you are in a prison of sin, you can follow those steps I have outlined and allow God to reward you with freedom from that prison.

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“Taking Significant Steps”

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Tony Casson

“And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.”

Matthew 14:28-29 ESV

Getting out of that boat was a very significant step for Peter. The steps you and I take may never seem to reach that level of significance, but the steps we take are important nonetheless.

At Oakdale FCI, there was a fellow inmate named Jack Wilson who was from Shreveport. Jack was quite short, but then, so were many people from Louisiana. At least it seemed that way.  He worked in the dining hall in various capacities for most of the 5+ years he was there, and developed a habit that earned him the nickname “Walkin’ Jack’.

Our prison ‘rec’ yard had a concrete track which was roughly 1/3 mile long. When Jack was not in the dining hall or sleeping, he was walking around the track. I mean he was always walking around the track. People would join him for 5 laps; maybe even 10. For 30 minutes; some, even an hour. One thing was certain, though: Jack would outlast them all. If you wanted to find Jack, he was out on the track, walking.

Hence the nickname. But you already guessed that, right?

Jack not only walked, and walked, and walked, he kept track of his mileage, and by the time he was released, several months before I was, he had logged over 20,000 miles!

That was a lot of miles, and it took a lot of steps to reach that plateau. According to “The Walking Site”, it takes about 2,000 steps to walk one mile. Using that number, ‘Walkin’ Jack’ took over 40 million steps just while walking the track to kill time before his release.

I did not walk 20,000 miles while I was at Oakdale, but I did spend a good amount of time walking that track. On occasion I even walked with Jack.

I never came close to being able to go the distance with him, but I did take a number of significant steps after arriving at Oakdale to self-surrender and begin my term on April 1, 2010. The first steps I took were from the freedom of the parking lot into the controlled and confined interior of the prison itself.

oakdale-prison-2jpeg-1edc547f2b19ae0dTaking that final step through the unassuming front door (shown above and marked #1 on the map below), I entered the place in which my little steps of faith would grow by leaps and bounds. After a rather somber goodbye to my brother, Jim, I got my first glimpse of the men who would control much of my life for the next 4+ years.

After a few preliminaries I was brought to Receiving & Discharge (R&D) where I was processed in and then delivered to the Special Holding Unit (SHU – #2 on the map) where I would spend the first five days of my incarceration under medical segregation. All individuals surrendering from ‘the street’ were administered TB tests and held in the SHU.

Oakdale FCI 3

On Tuesday, April 6, I was released from the SHU to become a part of the general population and I began the walk to Allen Unit (#3 on the map). Those steps were among the most difficult I have ever taken in my life, as I walked towards uncertainty with my mind working overtime trying to stay focused on God. But it was early in my relationship with Him and it was difficult to suppress the apprehension that filled me.

The full story of that walk, and my introduction into my new ‘home’ can be found by clicking on the above link to the original “Oakdale Chronicles”, going to April 2010 in the archives, and reading the first several very short posts.

It was late in the afternoon when I was released from the SHU, and I would not meet anyone with whom I would feel safe until the next day. It was the next day as well, that I would move into the cell where I would remain for the duration of my stay. Cell #208,-U, the ‘U’ designating the upper bunk in a two man cell. As it turned out, Wednesday would also be my commissary day, so I was able to obtain some of the things that helped to make prison life more comfortable.

Among the items purchased were shorts and athletic shoes. These would prove to be well-used items over time, as I also discovered the track in the recreation area (#4 on the map), which was known as the ‘rec’ yard.

In “The Crumbs On The Path”, an article I posted here on April 7, I wrote about the importance of the discovery I made, while walking on that track, of my own personal “Golgotha”, a group of three old wooden power poles that stood together and resembled the three crosses where Christ was crucified along with the two robbers. The actual spot where those ‘crosses’ stood, outside the fence, is shown as #5 on the map. If you look closely at the first inset photo (double-clicking on the photo will enlarge it), you can see shadows cast by the poles and it then becomes easy to see where the inspiration for the drawing comes from.

What a blessing it was to be provided on an almost daily basis with such a powerful reminder of the freedom that is ours if we are only willing to take the steps necessary to attain it!

One of the most significant steps we take on the path to that freedom is taken when we pray, read the Holy Bible, and meditate on what we have read. In our lives here on earth, it is necessary to draw our strength to cope with the daily struggles and challenges of that life by taking those steps on a daily basis.

In prison, it is even more important, but it is also easier since we have the time, if we choose to use it to develop a relationship with God and if we will only take advantage of His ability to direct our steps.

I took advantage of that ability.

Those individuals who are fortunate enough to be allowed to walk up to the front door of a prison and self-surrender are allowed to enter with a Bible. I did not know this, so the Bible my sister bought for me remained at her house with all of my other belongings. Immediately after moving into Allen Unit, I had my brother-in-law, Larry, send me a new Bible (hardcover books had to come directly from the publisher). Below is a picture of my “Life Application” study Bible, my “One Year” Bible, and “Streams In The Desert”, a very old and well-known daily devotional book by L.B. Cowman which my sister recommended to me, and which would become the inspiration for my own daily devotional book, “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”.

Also shown are a copy of “Our Daily Bread” which I obtained quarterly from the prison chapel, and another devotional called “The Word For You Today”, which was sent in by my friend Diane. She actually sent several copies which were distributed to my closest friends.

Learning To Love God 3

Those items became as important to me on a daily basis as breathing was. Almost without fail, I began each day thanking God for the gift of another new day, and asking Him for wisdom and understanding in what I was about to read. Using the “One Year” Bible format, I was able to read the Bible completely just over four times while incarcerated. With the “Life Application” study Bible, I was able to learn how to apply what I was reading to my daily life. And with the daily devotions I read, I was exposed to different perspectives, thoughts, and things to meditate on.

Each book provided me with significant daily steps on my path to freedom, and as you can see from the picture below, those books were well-used.

Learning To Love God 2

Whether we find ourselves living in penal institutions due to lives lived in willful disobedience to God, or whether we wake up each morning in our homes, it is important that our steps include reading the Word of God and meditating on its meaning.

There is a blog I follow titled “Messy Jesus Business”, and this ‘messy Jesus business’ can be quite confusing to those of us whose steps are like those of a small child beginning to walk. Those steps are tentative and unsure, unsteady and wobbly. But whether we take them in prison, or in our homes, we must take them daily.

They are important steps. They are joyful steps. They are reassuring steps.

And they are among the most significant steps we will ever take.

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“The Gift Of This Day”

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Tony Casson

 “On the day I called, you answered me;
    my strength of soul you increased.”  

Psalm 138:3 ESV

On the menu bar above, there is a link to my book of daily devotions, “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”. I was speaking about that book with someone who volunteers at Central Union Mission recently, and I was trying to explain exactly what the book represents to me.

“TODAY IS….”, is a deeply personal work in which my relationship with God grew and flourished, and continues to do so today. I like to think there are things to be found within its pages that can benefit us all, but if nothing else it is my attempt to share those personal moments with God that I experienced as I sought answers from Him to questions about how I should have done things, how I should have lived my life and how He could have saved me a lot of time, trouble and turmoil had I only called upon Him sooner.

While this entry into these “Chronicles” is a slight diversion from the actual “Path to Freedom” that constitutes the overarching purpose for this blog, I pray you will all view what is offered here as being similar to a ‘scenic turnout’ which we have all pulled into on our way to a particular destination. While continuing on our journey would have helped us arrive sooner, the momentary pause enhances the overall experience of the journey itself.

Perhaps an occasional stop in “Scenic Turnouts” to explore the pages of “TODAY IS….A Gift From God” will serve a similar purpose.

Our first ‘turnout’ provides us with a look at a poem I wrote, which is found in the front of the book. I think the poem itself describes the purpose of the book perfectly. I hope you enjoy it.

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‘TODAY IS’

Today is a gift from God,

A day unlike all the rest;

A brand new opportunity

To bring out our very best.

Today is a wondrous thing;

A day full of life on God’s earth;

A day to invest all our love

To make today something of worth.

Today is a chance to inspire,

To worship, to lead, to teach;

To help others searching for truth,

And to show them how high they can reach.

Tony Casson ©2013

Each day truly is a gift from God, full of opportunities to honor Him, to serve Him, and to glorify Him. Each entry in the book attempts to give God glory by demonstrating how the wisdom of the Holy Bible can be used to live lives that show our love for Him by loving others, helping those who cannot help themselves, and by looking to His Word for guidance in living our lives in the manner that all children of God should strive to live.

Our next ‘turnout’ gives us a view of one of my favorite devotions. For no particular reason, it falls on August 14. While I believe all of us can be found in this particular day’s offering, rest assured that I fall into the category of one who allowed everything to be stolen by Satan. While I pray none of you falls into that particular category as well, rest assured, if you do, it is ok. God knows and He can help.

I hope you enjoy it.

August 14

TODAY IS…

the perfect day to take back what has been stolen from us.

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Romans 16:20a NIV

Every single one of us has had something stolen from us by Satan. No one has escaped except for Christ. We all have given in to temptation and we all have sinned and every time we have sinned, we have allowed Satan to take something else from us.

We have been his willing victims.

He has stolen dignity from some of us. From others, he has stolen decency. He has stolen our faithfulness to our spouses and our faith in God. He has stolen our truthfulness, and he has stolen our integrity. We have let him slip away in the darkness with our morality, and we have let him get away unnoticed with our kindness. He has pocketed our happiness, and smashed the windows to our souls and left the space empty. He has cheated us out of our love for ourselves, leaving us unable to love anyone else. He has conned us out of our certainty, leaving us with our doubts.

When we weren’t looking he walked away with our compassion, and left disdain in its place. While he distracted us with self-indulgence, he swiped our desire to help others and replaced it with selfishness. He has stolen our tolerance while trying to convince us that hostility and impatience were better suited to our personalities.

He has stolen our sight, making it impossible to see the pain of others and he has taught us to lie, cheat, and steal while we have hungrily pursued the education.

More than likely, what Satan has stolen from you is somewhere on this list. If not, it needs to be added, because everyone has lost something. Some of us have lost more than one thing, and perhaps more than a few have lost it all. He will try to prevent you from calculating your exact losses. He will try to cloud your judgment, distract you, or take something else from you. He pretends to be the best friend you ever had, but he is – in reality – the biggest danger you have ever faced. He will suck everything good out of you until there is nothing left but your last breath and then he will take that as well.

But the Good News is that today is not going to be like yesterday. Today we are going to take it all back. God has been waiting for today for a very long time, and He is glad that it is here. We must reach out and ask God to take our hand and tell Him we want everything Satan has stolen from us. Today is the perfect day to take it all back, and God is the Perfect One to help us all get it.

From “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”; Tony Casson; ©2013

Well, I hope you enjoyed our little “scenic turnouts”. Until next time, when we continue taking one of our “Thousand First Steps”, may God bless you all and keep you safe.

 

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“A Thousand First Steps”

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Tony Casson

“The simple believes everything,
    but the prudent gives thought to his steps.”  

Proverbs 14:15 ESV

At the end of the previous post, I announced that “I had found the foot of the stairs, and I was about to begin climbing them.”

Things didn’t happen exactly that way, and certainly not that quickly.

I was excited, for sure, but then the reality of my situation set in. The weight of the legal problems I faced seemed to have the potential to crush me. The bright red freshness of the scars on my neck, which I saw each time I looked in the mirror, were reminders that my suicide attempt and subsequent arrest had finally stripped the blinders completely off and revealed the stunning fact that my entire life – all 56 years of it to that point –  had been lived with no real purpose other than an apparent ultimate goal of self-destruction which had almost been achieved. Those scars would eventually come to mean something entirely different to me. At my baptism on February 15, I announced to the congregation of Capitol Hill Baptist Church that, “These days, when I look in a mirror, the scars on my neck serve as a reminder how far away from God our disobedience can lead us.”

But that day in 2015 was still a long way off.

In August of 2009, although I was alive, things still looked pretty bleak and I thought about the ‘stairs’ I had to climb and just how many there were. The situation I was in, and the events of the previous week, combined to momentarily overwhelm me. Even though I should have probably just taken the first step and begun to climb the staircase, in actuality the first thing I did was to sit down and think about recent events. In addition, negative thoughts about the way I had lived – indeed, wasted – most of my life were given way too much prominence in my mind and I momentarily turned my back on the steps that needed to be taken and I was feeling more than a little lost and alone.

Don’t get me wrong. I was elated to be in possession of the knowledge that my life had been saved through what I somehow knew was the direct intervention of God. Even in the earliest moments of my new-found faith, this was one salient fact that was never in doubt. From the moment I opened my eyes in Jackson Memorial Hospital and realized that I was not, in fact, dead, I knew that God was responsible. Unfortunately this knowledge, rather than immediately putting me at ease and providing me with comfort, presented me with an entirely new set of problems to address which were summed up in the question I asked my sister after receiving the gift of the Bible she sent to me: “Now what do I do with it?”

“Read it.”

That is the simplified version of my sister’s response and it does, in fact, lie at the very center of building a relationship with God, learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and discovering how those things can change our lives on earth and provide us with eternal life in God’s Kingdom.

But those revelations would come later, because for the moment, in spite of the basic wisdom of my sister’s response, I still found it necessary to ask myself, “Really, what am I supposed to do with it?”

the-journey-of-a-thousand-miles-begins-with-a-single-step-quote-2

We have all seen this, heard this, and said this. The significance of the statement is most often minimized, but it really does represent one of those basic, inescapable, and important truths of life: Whether it is a journey, a task, a flight of stairs, or a walk across the country, we will never arrive at the completion of whatever it may be if we fail to begin. To begin, we must take the first step.

Once we take the first step, we discover that there is no such thing as a ‘second step’ or a ‘third step’. There are only a thousand first steps, for each step we have taken becomes part of our past and the journey we are on begins anew.

For me, at that time in late August of 2009, one first step was to take comfort from the way my new Bible felt in my hands and to stumble through the unfamiliar territory of words that would, over the course of the next several years, come to represent all of the answers I ever sought, and provide me with all of the wisdom I could ever seek. A new life had been given to me and I wanted to know why. I instinctively knew that the answer to that question lay in the written words that, at the time, made me so uncomfortable.

Becoming comfortable was not anywhere near as sudden as the discovery of my new-found faith in God. I struggled for the entire 8 months in which I remained free while awaiting resolution to my criminal case. While the specifics of that resolution was uncertain, one things was not: Prison was most definitely in my future. My hope was that prison could be avoided, and my first attempts at a prayer life were filled with requests for that to be the case, but it eventually began to sink in that God had a different plan for me than the one I thought I wanted.

Once I accepted the reality of the immediate future, I looked to God for the courage, strength, and wisdom to face what I needed to face and to do it in a manner that would help me to grow in my faith. As God had planned, it was while in prison that I  would learn to be prudent and give thought to the steps I was taking as I made the Word of God the Light that lit my path and the source of the ‘spiritual breadcrumbs’ I would discover along the way.

And it is in prison that we will examine some of those ‘thousand first steps’ which led me away from the floor of that bloody shower stall to this new life that is a remarkable example of God’s mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love.

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