Pastor Tony Evans wrote about how God can use bad experiences to prepare us for future service. He wrote, “The tragedy is not the circumstances, but that we often go through them without learning from them or realizing that God can make something good out of them.”

Early on in my sentencing I decided the circumstances that led to my incarceration were not going define who I am. I was going to give God every opportunity to make something good out of something bad.

I prayed for guidance and the Spirit led me to Psalm 40:1-3.

I put all my hope in the Lord.
He leaned down to me;
he listened to my cry for help.
² He lifted me out of the pit of death,
out of the mud and filth,
and set my feet on solid rock.
He steadied my legs.
³ He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise for our God.
Many people will learn of this and be amazed;
they will trust the Lord.

God has been true to His Word. I look forward to the day when people are amazed at how God has worked in my life and how He has pulled me and my family out of the pits my sins buried us in. I pray many are amazed and put their trust in the Lord. I am excited to see what doors the Lord opens in 2015.

Please be assured, whatever you have done in the past God can make good out of your failures if you let Him. In the words of the late musician Rich Mullins, “God can take the junk of our lives and make the greatest art in the world out of them.”

• turning bad into good