Bring Your Broken Pieces (And Start New)Sample

Bring Your Labels

Problematic is tattooed across Joshua’s forehead. He was called that as a child. Heathen is inked above his right eyebrow because he believed he was unworthy of forgiveness. Under his eye are the letters KYS, “kill yourself,” because of the people who told him to go end it all.

Those are just the tattoos on his face. Ink marks his neck, hands, and arms. He had needles stain lies under his skin, but God told him all of that was untrue. Now, those tattoos are a testament to how far he’s come.

Joshua’s childhood was turbulent. His abusive father went to prison after nearly beating his mom to death. Joshua burned down his family house at just two years old and was yanked from his mother’s arms. He spent three years in a psychiatric and behavioral hospital where he was diagnosed with ADHD. They put him on a daily medication, which became the start of his stimulant addiction. By age eleven, he was self-medicating. It wasn’t long before he’d been a prisoner in several different states and seven different prison facilities.

Then came the breaking point.

Joshua’s twenty-five-year-old autistic niece became sick with COVID-19. Before she slipped into a coma and passed away, she said, “Tell my Uncle Josh that I love him. I never gave up on him and wish he’d get his life right.”

She held such a big piece of Joshua’s heart.

Of his life.

And now she was gone.

Who was he to be in prison instead of with his family? What if it had been his kids who had passed away while he was behind bars?

I’m as bad as my father, he thought.

But Joshua wanted better.

He hit his knees. “Guide me. I’m done with this life. I need you to show me how to change. Show me how to be a better man and live lovingly. I want to spread love to people that need it.”

Joshua spent the next sixteen months reading his Bible or crying in his cell. There was so much trauma and pain to work through. He had to slug through giant pools of dark memories. It was like struggling through tar.

Or ink.

When he got off the bus from prison and entered True Purpose Ministries, he didn’t talk much, coming off as standoffish and rude as grown men told him they loved him.

It was weird at first, no doubt, but also a nice change. People weren’t just saying the words, “I love you.” They were showing him how to live it out day by day.

He graduated from True Purpose Ministries and is now in college full-time. He volunteers to mentor incarcerated and other troubled youth.

And he tells those kids his stories through his tattoos: “See this? I thought I was unloved. See this? I thought my life was hopeless. But guess what? There are people out there who care. You just have to find them.”

It took Joshua thirty-eight years to find his worth in Christ, but his tattoos no longer tell the story of his pain. They tell the story of his triumph from his past.

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How have you labeled yourself? Give your labels to the Lord and see which ones He says are true and which He says are blatant lies. I think you'll be surprised that the Lord may see you very differently than you see yourself. He sees you with so much love, friend.