Even though I spent over ten years of my life behind prison bars, I started off right. Aunt Rosie started taking me to Gentian Baptist Church when I was little. I learned all the things you would learn going to church at that age. I learned all about Jesus and the Roman road to salvation. I had a father that believed in “beating the devil out of you,” if you know what I mean. He applied the board of education to the seed of learning.
But as I grew up, I started hanging around a different company. Instead of hanging out with the youth group, I hung out with the ones that wouldn’t be found alive in a church. Dead? That’s a different matter. That’s when things started to change for me.
1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Evil communication corrupts good manners,” and I can attest that the Lord isn’t lying when He said that. I started hanging out with the wrong crowd. My new friends, Randy Cotton and his cousin Billy Cotton, introduced me to something called Southern Comfort Whiskey. I know you, a good Christian, have no clue what that is. Well, I didn’t really know the depths of what it was either until I took my first drink. And that was about half a pint of 100-proof “comfort.” And so you know, that “comfort” was a lie.
Trees started spinning, and then I started a spell of severe puking. Not trying to be vulgar, but that’s what happened. That led to lying and cheating, which led to drugs. Marijuana led to other things until I became a full-blown alcoholic and drug addict.
Then my criminal path started. I was caught running from police in a high-powered ’77 Nova due to speeding and running open headers, which, for those who don’t know, means that my mufflers weren’t connected properly and you could hear me coming a mile away. I was arrested for possession of marijuana and sentenced to a chain gang road camp in Georgia.
They think that sending people to prison is going to straighten people up, but it sure didn’t do that to me. Instead of learning from my crime, I was exposed to the influence of hardened criminals. I slept right near a man with a life sentence for armed robbery. During my conversations with him, he planted the seed for this glorious life of armed robbery. The irony was that the man promoting this glorious life was doing so while sitting in prison with a life sentence.
You can see how all of these relationships and influences were pushing me to run away from what God wanted me to do and follow after the devil. Yes, I had attempted to do right, but every one of them failed. I followed the “do right gospel”—doing right only until out of the judge’s sight. I sank deeper and deeper into sin because of the environment, people, and things that I was surrounded with.
I became so hooked on the drugs I bought and sold that I accumulated a good amount of debt to the “dope man.” It got so bad that I hit rock bottom. I lost my brick home, my Corvette, and everything else. I ended up sleeping in the ditches. It got so bad that I got together with “Goat,” who was one of my hardheaded friends, and we decided to rob this place that we knew had a large amount of money. We were high on drugs and alcohol during this robbery, and we got to the point that I was holding a .38 pistol to the head of this poor woman. It was at that point that I snapped back to my senses. I didn’t turn my life over to God, but I did come to a realization of how far I had fallen.
Despite being taught better by Aunt Rosie, Mama, and Daddy, and being taken to church, I was willing to kill for my own needs. And I tell you all of this, not to glorify the devil, but to show you how those you associate with can lead you away from what God has for you. It’s not to puff up the devil but to glorify God.
We ran out of that place and jumped in the stolen car that we had. Our plan was to drive down to a stolen trail bike that we stashed down the road in the woods. Of course the plans of the devil and the unrighteous are never successful, no matter what it looks like.
One of Goat’s jobs was to tear the payphone off the wall so the people couldn’t call the authorities, but he didn’t quite remember that. So we were driving down the road, too fast for the road because we were in fear of whatever may or may not be behind us. We hit a bank on a sharp curve. The authorities quickly arrived because of that payphone. I’m running away from the crash site with Goat, and then we realize that neither of us has the money or the gun. Bloodhounds and Alabama State Patrol officers with shotguns were chasing us down. But by a miracle of the devil, we didn’t get arrested right then. We ended up spending the night in the woods until we could call someone the next day to pick us up. We had gotten away “scot free” with a crime with nothing to show for it. That’s what the devil will do.
I want you to understand that of all of the boys that I grew up with in my community, I’m the only one who is still living. In fact, every other one of them died before the age of 32. All of them got into some kind of sin or drugs or something. Sin will kill you. It’s no respecter of persons.
You have to be careful who you associate with because it will rub off on you; I don’t care what the world says. But just as bad company will corrupt good character, the right company will build you up. I got saved on my third escape from prison, and since then, I’ve changed who I associate with. I went from hanging out with criminals and the rottenest of sinners to fellowshipping with those that love the Lord with all their might.
The difference is night and day. From being out of my mind on drugs and alcohol to having the mind of Christ—there’s no comparison. I can tell you, all those years serving the devil, I had no peace at all, and I could tell it. But you know that’s not true when you’re born again. You can sense the peace of God. The people you associate with will either bring you down or lift you up. They’ll influence you one way or another. So be careful who you allow into your life. God is with you!
