The God of Green Pastures

Psalm 23:1-2
"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures…"

“Green pastures” are the places in our lives where God leads us into rest and reflection upon His goodness. The lush, green meadows are the places where we feel that sense of satisfaction on the inside of us, and our souls can lay down and rest in peace. In this fast-paced, hurry-up world we live in there is no time to rest, or is there? The Good Shepherd says differently.

God leads us into green pastures for a reason. He wants us to enjoy life, and the best part of life is Him. One famous Christian writer once said, “Our souls find no rest until they find their rest in You, O Lord.” I can still remember my life before Jesus, I was never at rest. I was always searching and searching for something outside of me to put in me that would stop the uneasiness and turmoil. I used things like drugs, alcohol, sex, and anything else that would cause a feeling of comfort. But the worldly comforts never lasted long, and all of them ended up paying huge dividends that I wasn’t expecting. No, I needed Someone who could end the search for me.

Bud (name changed) was moved into our re-entry dorm about 7 or 8 months ago. He is an Irish immigrant about 45 years old who had committed a crime in Texas and received a 1-2 year sentence. Bud was set in his ways, and his ways mostly exhibited a lack of trust, negativism, and a tendency to question anything and everything. Right off the bat we knew we had our hands full because he did not trust us or Jesus, especially Jesus. Everybody could tell that life had been cruel to Bud. Of course, his “horse’s rear-end” personality didn’t help matters any, to say the least.

There was no “green pasture” in Bud’s life. He participated in the classes, but with a serious disdain for anything good. You see, we are a re-entry dorm which means we don’t just come in everyday and teach classes, but we also will help the men who show a willingness to follow the program, with a place to live (if they don’t have one), bus passes, work and job-finding clothes, groceries, and other basic necessities until they get stabilized. So there is a lot at stake if you get moved out of the dorm for non-participation. The truth is our program is working. I say that because most of the men who come into the dorm are different men altogether by the time they leave. God’s word (which most of them have never known) starts sprouting and taking root in their lives and there becomes a noticeable difference at some point along their journey. It is truly awesome to witness, but we have to hang in there and not give up on them.

Well, Bud was no different, after a while in the dorm under the teaching, and as a result of other men getting released and writing letters back to the guys in the program saying that we had indeed fulfilled our obligations on the outside, he started loosening up, a little. After each class when we would leave for the day Bud would still start spewing his negative comments like “they aren’t going to help us when we get released” or “they’re just in it for the money (huh, I have no idea where he gets that), they don’t really care about us just watch and see.” And, of course, he got himself into a big wreck because of his bad attitude. But after that, while the bruises were healing and his pride along with it, he started really engaging this Jesus even if it was slow and sporadic (a great place to be for him).

One day we came into the dorm and Bud had been moved to Houston because he was about to be released and Immigration Services wanted to check him out because of his Irish descent. We thought we had lost him for good, but God was working in Bud. Thankfully for most of us, Jesus loves even the “horse’s rear-ends.” A couple of weeks later my phone rang and you’ll never guess who was on the other end. Yep, it was Bud. He said “Hey man, this is Bud and I just got released in Houston, do you remember me?” And I answered that I did (how could I ever forget). “I don’t have any place to go; will you guys still help me?” We (Stek) picked him up around midnight at the Greyhound bus station and took him over to a transitional house we often use for our re-entrants.

Well, being an Irish immigrant with no identification and no birth certificate with him to obtain a Texas I.D. we still got him some clothes, groceries, and a bus pass so he could go look for a job during the week. I don’t know if you caught what I just said. How easy do you think it is going to be to find a job without any identification? You’re right, impossible. Well, that’s what we thought. So we had to send off to New York for a copy of his birth certificate in order to help him get an I.D. when and if it arrives. By now Bud is starting to see that we were serious about our word when we said we would help them when they got out of prison, and he even thanked me (miracle) one day for all of our help. I had never really heard much gratitude out of him for anything. I think Bud is starting to see some “green pasture” in his life even though he may not recognize it as such because of its complete foreignness to him. But God, who in Bud’s mind was only starting to show out because he doesn’t realize how close we came to giving up on him inside the prison, and how everything we have already gotten for him comes from the money that our churches put into a re-entry fund which is God’s property, was about to do the impossible for Bud.

I got a phone call this past week from Bud who has been waiting for the Birth Certificate in hopes of finding a job. He said he needed some work pants and boots and belt by the next morning. He was really excited and went on to tell me how he was standing out in the front-yard of the transitional house when he struck up a conversation with the neighbor. Bud mentioned to the neighbor that he was an out-of-work painter who just got released from prison and was still waiting on some documents to come in the mail so he could go look for a job. And by some stroke of ginormous luck (the God of the green pastures) the neighbor told Bud that he owned his own painting company, and one of his guys didn’t show up for work today. Then he asked Bud if he would like to go to work for him the following day. Wow! What are the chances of that happening? Slim to none unless Jesus is your job-finder (Shepherd). Well, to say the least, Bud has just been led into a "green pasture" by we-know-who. His faith has just taken an enormous leap because even Bud knows the chances of that happening to him are astronomical.

Is Bud a Christian, yet? I don’t know. But I can tell you one thing, it is more than obvious to this Christian that the Shepherd is leading him, whether he is aware of it or not. And I do know this also, Jesus won’t stop pursuing His lost sheep. So, please pray for Bud and all the other inmates who have decided to join our faith-based dorms and give this Jesus a chance.

We at Ministries 101 would like to sincerely thank Jesus who leads us and all of you who are praying for and supporting this most rewarding ministry inside and outside the prisons. We simply can not do it without you or Him.