Margi Starr, Springfield, Ohio
Chapter 1—Thoughts Are Things
I went to jail this week.
This past Sunday my church had Salt & Light Sunday. Instead of being comfortable inside our church, dozens of teams left the building and we WERE the Church. Some teams spread mulch at city playgrounds; some painted park benches; some painted school classrooms; and some cleaned the Children’s Rescue Center. Teams from our church literally spread across the city and served our community.
There were twelve of us who went to the county jail to lead worship and pray with inmates.
It was like entering a foreign land.
The security procedures were unnerving; the sounds were harsh; the environment was barren.
Several women and I were escorted towards the trailers. The jail chaplain led us through a maze of corridors and then took us down an elevator to the basement. What I had always believed was an underground parking lot turned out to a vast concrete area with six metal buildings that served as prison cells.
The chaplain left us standing by a thick chain link fence staring at these locked up trailers.
One by one the doors of the trailers were opened by the deputy. Inmates filed out from a trailer one-by-one and were shoved a plate a food. The inmates filed back one-by-one to their trailer to eat their food.
During this Sunday lunch, I started playing my guitar and the worship team started singing. With all the hard surfaces in that place, the music provided a starkly different backdrop.
To our great surprise, the deputy allowed the inmates to once again leave their cells so they could listen to our music. Blank eyes stared at us. Empty faces watched me strum my guitar. Young women wearing gray prison garb quietly stood as we continued to sing.
Many women came to the fence and some of worship team members prayed with them. The line for prayer grew.
I tried to connect with the women by looking into their eyes and thinking positive thoughts for them. We ended our serenade by singing a simple chorus…
“We love you with the love of Jesus, We love you with the love of the Lord. We see in you what He wants us to. And we love you with the love of the Lord.”
Thoughts are indeed things. Negative thoughts destroy and steal dreams. Positive thoughts heal and bring hope. Unconditional love, cannot be bound or chained. It is the most powerful energy in the entire universe. And it begins with a positive thought.
Each day is filled with choices. Each thought is either positive or negative. There is no middle ground.
I am grateful for each one in the Mastermind and especially for Michael and Linda Dlouhy. Together our thoughts are changing the world.
Unchained,
Margi Starr
Springfield, Ohio
Lesson plan from Margi Starr on chapter 1 for the 30 day mental cleanse.
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