Ted was about as mean as any cuss I had the unfortunate experience of crossing paths with. He was far advanced in the areas of nastiness and just plain meanness than his sixteen years seemed normal. In my tenure as a counselor in the Hard Core Section of the Juvenile Hall, only two intakes were worthy of being totally isolated from the general population and he was one of them.
As Senior Counselor, it was my job to check on Ted every hour to make sure he was still alive and well, (physically). Each time I would ask him if he needed anything and each time he would come up with a new rendition of my name.
I would like to share some of Ted’s back ground to set the stage for the unbelievable miracle that occurred in the isolation cell one night but it would take pages. But let me say that Ted had been a frequent visitor in the Hall since the age of eight and had spent several tours at the various training schools around the state. He was referred to as a ‘very bad motor scooter by staff and kids alike.’
On my nine o’clock round I once again asked Ted if he needed anything that I was permitted to give him. Again the air turned blue as Ted cursed everything from his birth to my mother. But as I was leaving, he called me back and ask for something to read. I accommodated his request by pushing a Gideon New Testament through the slot in the door.
On the next trip by his door I once again peered through the slot to see if Ted was reading the New Testament and not to my surprise, Ted was up to his knees in Gideon Bible paper and the intensity level in his voice reached a new level.
If someone would have suggested that Ted would be anything but a nasty and mean human being who would spend most of the rest of his life in one lock up facility or another, I certainly had no grounds to rebuke such a thought.
I had learned in my early tenure of working with the bad hombres that found their way into my area that nothing I could say would penetrate the shells that these young men had developed. I also learned that they responded only to how I handled myself and how consistent I was in reaching out to them with something they really did not understand – compassion in Jesus.
Blessings,
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