Oh Brian! by Brian Hardie (freda ebook reader .txt) 📕

A few days later Curtis came in. A humble brother who (by his admission) was falsely accused by his ex-wife. They arrested him without a warrant. I believed him. He read the bible all day and was peaceful through this process. “Blessed are the persecuted.” It took two weeks for him to get out. He was an inspiration to many.

Craig came in a week later. He was a “seasoned” prisoner. He had been in prison for twelve years previously for stealing two trucks. Every day he was “twenty-something” was spent in prison. He had been out for two and a half years when he caught this new charge. He was a con man and brought in a spirit of trouble to the block. His first con was a NASCAR race gamble where everyone had a chance to win about fifty candy bars and for his part Craig took about twenty for himself.

Craig asked me one day, “How long do you think they’ll give me for stealing a motorcycle stand?” Here’s the rest of the story. He got out of prison with the help of a sponsor. The sponsor gave him a truck and a job. He did great for two years. Then one day he hired a young guy that liked drugs. The young guy kept poking fun at Craig for “missing out” on the good times of being twenty. After two months, Craig started to weaken. One day the guy told him to take him by a house where he could get something. Upon arrival, the drug dealer inside asked, “Is this the guy who never did drugs?” Craig fought off the initial attack, drove down the road a half a mile, and by his own testimony, “Something grabbed the wheel and turned me back, I started using and in three months I was doing Heroin continuously.”

One day the worker had a motorcycle stand to trade for drugs. Craig went by the drug dealers place and he wasn’t interested in the stand. Craig left. He was driving to work when he dropped his drug bag. He pulled over and was frantically looking for it when a policeman drove by and saw “something weird.” Just as God would have it, the policeman just came from doing a report on a stolen (you guessed it) motorcycle stand.

Craig’s theory was that he got twelve years for thirty thousand dollars worth of vehicles so he should get about one year for a three hundred dollar motorcycle stand. I said, “It doesn’t work that way, God is chasing you, twelve years didn’t fix your disobedience, you’ll get more than twelve years, maybe fifteen.” He said I was crazy and he didn’t talk to me for a week. They offered him eighteen years. He was humbled when he came back and said, “You are right, I have to make some changes, can you help?” We prayed and asked God for mercy. Craig gave his life over to Jesus. He even told the married woman coming to see him that it was over and he couldn’t see her anymore. He looked like a glowing light bulb. He was reading his bible and coming to bible study and prayer. God came through as he always does. The DA changed his mind and gave Craig one year.

I was at peace and didn’t have a care where God wanted me. I felt like I’d be here a while. One day a guard said, “Hardie, Pack it up, all the way”. I didn’t believe it and went to the shower. When the guards came back, they were not happy. I dressed so fast, I didn’t put on socks. The clothes I had to leave in came out of storage and were all bundled up. My jeans were too large now since I lost weight. I must have been a sight with the most wrinkled shirt in history, too large jeans and some “old school” Nike shoes someone gave me in Jefferson county jail. It’s no wonder I walked thirteen miles without a ride offer. I didn’t need a ride, I praised God every six steps like David did bringing back the Ark of the Covenant. After thirteen miles I prayed, “God, you know I can walk a hundred miles, but I feel a few blisters coming on, can you help me?” I heard, “Do not hitchhike, he’ll come from the other direction and he’ll take you wherever you want to go.” I took ten steps and a van pulled off the road from the other direction. The driver said, “Hey brother, come on in, I’m going to take you wherever you want to go.” When I got in the van, he handed me a card and on top of the card was three crosses. He had drawn a square around them which made it look just like the flag I drew in Jefferson county jail. The passenger asked, “Where you been, buddy?” I said, “Jail.” He said, man they starve you in that place, I craved pizza so bad when I was in there, what did you crave?” I said, “I guess Kentucky Fried Chicken because they pass by it when they take you to court and it smelled so good.” He reached down and said, “Well here you go brother” as he handed me four pieces of fried chicken.

When I arrived at a phone, I called my now ex-wife. No answer. Where could I go? I looked in my bible and found a phone number for a guy I met in Jefferson County Jail. He answered and said he had a room for me at his house.  He even came to pick me up. I called my ex-wife several times to see how I could get Andrew for the weekend as written in the divorce. I called her sister twice and the second time she hung up on me. I called her attorney who said I could call but not to harass them. I said, “Bob, you’re a lawyer, if I had known they didn’t want to talk to me, I wouldn’t have called, but now that I know, I won’t call again. I’ll put in God’s hands and you better watch out.”

I don’t remember where I got a cell phone, but I got one. I called a prison minister I met in Jefferson County. On Saturday he picked me up and took me to a clothing ministry where I got four “sets” of clothes.  I even got a duffle bag to hold all my “stuff”. It was Friday and evening was coming. My new landlord was talking about getting some pot to pay off his bills. I recommended he didn’t. He said, “Who do you think you are? You can’t even take your son to Chucky Cheese!” I replied, “I just want to see him and give him a hug.” He laughed. He hadn’t seen his son for three months since he got out of jail because he couldn’t “buy him something.” How absurd. 

A simple question for you: If your dad or mom asked you to choose between going somewhere and spending some money on you or spending the day where they would actually spend some time loving you, listening to you, and talking to you, which would you choose?

How about your children, if you have any. I recommend spending some time with them, get to know them, teach them something they can hold onto the rest of eternity—The Love of Jesus Christ!

I fasted and prayed for God’s will to be done. The two verses I held onto for eight months kept ringing through to my spirit: Genesis 50:20 “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” (What the world uses for evil against you, God uses for good). And Rom 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

On Sunday, I woke up and wanted to visit a church. I walked down the road and on the front of a big Baptist church I saw a sign that said, “Welcome.” That was all I needed. I went to a class. Then we went to the church service.  I sat in the balcony right above and to the side of the preacher. He gave an awesome sermon. At one point I stood up and said, “AMEN!” I got laughed at by the audience, but the preacher smiled. The Holy Spirit revealed to me, “This is what lukewarm looks like.” The preacher wasn’t. After church I spoke with him. He seemed frustrated with the move of God, or better, the lack thereof in his congregation. All I could think of was that these people were way better than me, they deserved heaven, they paid their bills, did everything right in the world, where is the justice in His outpouring to a sinner like me??? Weren’t they the “Good” people?

I heard the preacher told his congregation to get out, go visit other churches and bring back the presence of God. A brave man of God! Can you imagine a preacher saying that to a big church?

I fasted and prayed Monday until I received a call from my x-wife around 6:00 pm. She said, “I need forgiveness for something (I won’t say here, but it’s something she did illegally against me. It’s wasn’t a big deal unless I wanted to make it one, and I wouldn’t). I said, “You’re forgiven.” She said I could see Andrew on Wednesday. I said. “No, I am on my way to get him. What could she do? 

When I asked my landlord for a ride to get him, he brought up the “You can’t even buy him a burger story again.” I didn’t care and I knew Andrew wouldn’t either, I got the ride. On the way there, my x-wife called again and said, “I need to ask you forgiveness about another thing, I told Andrew that you left us.” I told her, “You’re forgiven.” She was in survival mode and had to do whatever she had to do. When I picked Andrew up, I held his hand until we got back to where I was staying.. When we got out of the car, I pulled him aside and told him that although my actions and inactions caused me to leave, that I would never leave him purposefully. I said, “Andrew, I love you, I was in jail, I was five minutes from here and you could have visited every week. In fact, I looked for you every Wednesday night for eight months.” He jumped into my arms and hugged me, I held him as I walked around the block. All the pain was being washed off of us and was behind us! We had the best weekend “catching up”.

On Sunday we went to the same church and had an enjoyable time. The preacher really took to Andrew. Later that