Making Choices

Greetings from Chillicothe Correctional Institute. Tuesday, Jeff Bell, Cathy Caldwell and I spent the day visiting Tyrone Ballew. He is healthy and well and tells us to share his love for you and to let you know he feels your prayers. We spent the day sharing stories, news events, thoughts of the future and ideas or theories about the day. He reads the local paper and the newsletter and is always eager to hear about each of you. He keeps up with his daughter, Jasmine, and celebrates all her new experiences. He prays for her. He prays for us. He prays for you.

Each time I visit with Tyrone, I am amazed by him. He will freely admit that on days we visit his spirit soars, but there are other days where he struggles. It’s easy to be joyful when someone comes to spend the day with you, when the tedium of his limited space is broken by human contact and shared love. On days that stretch endlessly where tomorrow is not promised, he can find himself struggling with sadness, even depression. That does not surprise me. He prays to God for hope, for strength, for deliverance. That does not surprise me. Then, he decides to meet each new day with joy, with a sense of purpose. That is what surprises me…but then it doesn’t…because I have come to know this man as someone of strong spirit, of unlimited perseverance, of deepest faith.

What he has come to learn from his cell is a lesson for each of us. Each day we are faced with a decision. Will we enter into our day making the choice to be filled with joy and willing share it with others? Or will we focus on life’s tragedies…or make everything a tragedy? Will we choose to love and respect that difficult person in our lives? Or will we complain to everyone we encounter about how miserable we are because of “fill-in-the-blank”…and make everyone around us miserable? Will we look at life’s circumstances as opportunities to learn, to grow, to love…in spite of its difficulties? Will we choose to persevere because of them?

Tyrone Ballew makes a choice each and every day when he wakes up in his cell. Most days he chooses to live life as fully as he can within his limited parameters. Some days he chooses to dwell in the sorrow of his situation…but even when he is in the midst of sorrow, he makes a to decision to not stay there…and he says for him it is easy to come out of it when he thinks of us loving him and praying for him all these years…then he chooses to hand things over to God and to get on with living.

You and I make choices each day, as well…
I’m so glad I chose to live my life with each of you…and to befriend this incredible man, Tyone Ballew.
Blessings,
Tracy