You Are More Than Your Worst Mistake (5-Pack)

You may, at this moment, feel like nothing more than your DOC number. In prison, everything about your identity is stripped down. You're given a jumpsuit, a bunk, and a number. People on the outside might only think of you as a thief, a murderer, or something worse.

But God wants you to know that you are more than your worst mistake.

I'll never forget an inmate named Christy. After a Sunday service in the county jail, she cried on my shoulder. Through tears she said, My daddy called me ugly every day of my life, even the days he molested me. My boyfriends treated me worse. The decent women in society have always looked down on me like I was trash. I've always known I was bad . . . but I swear, I've never had anyone tell me I could be--that I was supposed to be--more than that.

Maybe you've always been told--by your
father, by the state, by your teachers--that you're worthless or stupid or beyond all hope. Maybe you've even started to believe it yourself. But what if God says something different? What if the Bible says you were created for something greater? What if you were meant to be a king or queen,
living with dignity, purpose, and hope?

Well, friend, that's exactly where the story of the gospel begins.

Created for Royalty

If you want to know who you really are, you have to go back to the very beginning. Long before your arrest, long before your childhood, long before you were even born, God created all people with an inherent identity. Genesis 1 tells us who we were supposed to be, and it's nothing like what you've heard.

Here's what the Bible says:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion. (Genesis 1:27-28)

That's the very first word about humanity--not criminal, not addict, and not worthless. The very first word from God about you is that you were created in his image. That means you were designed to reflect him and his glory like the moon reflects the glory of the sun.

And more than that, you were created to rule. Notice the word God uses here: dominion. From the beginning, men and women were meant to reign as kings and queens under God, ruling over his good world with justice, wisdom, and love. You weren't created to be a slave to sin or to fight for survival in chains. You were created to carry yourself with dignity, to bear God's image, and therefore to spread his glory.

Think about that for a moment: God made the stars, the seas, the mountains, and even the animals, and all of them were called good. But then he made mankind. And he put his own imprint on us, crowning us with his heavenly glory.

That's who you're supposed to be.

Do you believe that? When I ask inmates to describe themselves with one word, they often use words like felon, addict, criminal, and prostitute. That's how they see themselves. But that's not what God's word says is most true about you. You aren't just a prisoner in a cage. You are, most fundamentally, a man or woman made in the image of God, created to reign with dignity as his royal representative.

That changes everything.

Before the handcuffs, there was a crown. Before the guilt, there was glory.

You were created for royalty. That's who you are.

From Crowns to Chains

If Genesis 1 shows us the crown God placed on our heads, Genesis 3 shows us how that crown was stolen and shattered. It's time for us to talk about sin.

Think of sin like hitting a mirror with a hammer. Sometimes the glass stays in place, even though it is utterly shattered. The reflection may still be there, but it's distorted, almost unrecognizable. That's what sin does to the image of God in us. It shatters the glorious image we were meant to reflect. Instead of bringing life and beauty into the world, we bring pain and destruction. Instead of wearing crowns, we wear chains. Instead of exercising dominion over the earth, we become addicted to drugs, sex, and power.

That's the tragedy of the fall. Do you feel it?

Adam and Eve listened to the words of Satan when he maliciously asked, Did God actually
say . . . ? (Genesis 3:1). And then what happened? They doubted God's goodness and disobeyed his word. The result, of course, was utter devastation. Their fellowship with God was broken. Their dignity was corrupted. Their calling to rule with care was twisted into a desire to dominate and oppress. And because Adam was the first man, the head of the human race, the consequences of his sin flowed down to and through every man and woman born after him.

Including you and me.

Sin is not just a mistake. It's not just a bad habit. It's hostility toward God. The Bible says,

The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7)

That's hard to hear, but it's the truth: Apart from Christ, we are not God's friends. We are his enemies (Romans 5:10). We have rejected his rule, despised his love, and resisted his purpose for our lives.

You weren't created to be at war with God. You were created to walk with him in peace and to reign under him in love. But sin twisted everything. The crown of dignity has been traded for chains of
rebellion. Instead of bowing to the King, we've tried to dethrone him.

This is why the apostle Paul says that apart
from Christ, we are dead in [our] trespasses and sins, . . . by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3). I don't have to spend much time convincing men and women behind bars that sin is real. You know it is. You've felt it. You've lived it. You've been the victim of it.

But here's