01/31/2018
L.A.M.B. SQUAD
Leading All Men Unto Brotherhood
(II Corinthians 5:19)
Security
By Stanley Lunsford SCI Dallas
The New World dictionary defines the word “security” as 1. The state of being or feeling secure; freedom from fear, anxiety, danger, doubt. 2. Something that gives or assures safety, tranquility, certainty.
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Stanley Lunsford, and I am presently incarcerated here at SCI Dallas with a cloud of a life-sentence hanging over my head after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the second-degree. I have been incarcerated for 28 years for simply being in the wrong place, with the wrong person, at the wrong time.
You see, it all started when I was a young boy with misplace loyalty; meaning, I was loyal to all the wrong things. Looking for security, I placed my trust in everything I could when the security I once had in my parents vanished. When I was a young boy, my parents separated and lived in separate homes. My two sisters, my older brother and I found ourselves traveling from one home to another to be an equal part of their lives. My siblings and I would spend the night with our father at his home and the next day after school go to our mother’s house to eat dinner and spend time with her before making the long trip back. Sometimes we would walk to our father’s house alone because he didn’t always have a car to drive and pick us up. His place was a long way from where my mother lived with her boyfriend; and during the wintertime it was very cold. I dreaded the long walk to our father’s place at night because I felt the impact of the insecurity and all the pain it brought to my heart due to our parent’s separation. Often this made me feel like I was being punished.
To flash forward, my father who I loved dearly, and whom I placed my security in, taught me to respect my neighbors and elders. He taught me to go to school each morning to get my education, and took me to church with him on Sunday mornings. He was my hero. But when I turned fourteen years old, my father suffered a tragic accident on his job as a construction worker. He fell off a scaffold twenty stories high and broke just about every bone in his body which caused his death several days later. I was devastated when my mother told me the news about my father’s accident on the job. Then two years later, my older brother who taught me how to mentally and physically be tough so that I would be able to take care of myself in the rough streets of North Philadelphia, committed su***de at the age of twenty-two. After someone slipped a Mickey (a mind-altering pill) into his drink when he wasn’t watching, the drug took his mind to a place where he would never return to reality; so he thought death was the only answer for relief. I placed security in my older brother because he was the only one who taught me how to get honest jobs such as being a paper route boy, bagging groceries at the grocery store, and how to shine shoes on the weekends. These jobs taught me responsibility and how to be honest as a young boy.
I didn’t know at the time that I would need some professional help to get through the entire trauma I experienced. In a short span of time, I had to grow up fast while having to deal with losing two of the most important people in my life. Yes, I had to become the man of the house at the tender age of sixteen years old in order to protect my two sisters, and my darling mother. Because I didn’t have the right positive role model to advise me, I never got the psychological help I needed to properly cope with the loss I encountered. Therefore, I chose the people in the streets of Philadelphia to follow because they fascinated me as a young teenager. I began to search for security in the so-called drug dealers, pimps, and gamblers to fulfill the legitimate human appetite and desire for safety. Meanwhile, Satan worked hard to corrupt this healthy desire I had on the inside for security. He abhors seeing people’s appetites satisfied. What he wants is to watch a person lusting after a good thing until he or she is controlled by the impulse to have it. The devil is pleased when people make themselves slaves to a desire that – in the proper context – the Lord intended to be enjoyed freely. He was out to deceive me through all the glitter, glamorous cars, and fast women the world had to offer me. I pursued each one of these only to find they led me to an addicted lifestyle which left me empty and dark in my soul. In this world I grew bigger and meaner…my mind was keener, and I had learned to rap with my hands, plus I was eager to compete with the hustlers on the street…for I had ambitious plans! It wasn’t long before the life I
had chosen would chew me up and spit me out like a used piece of gum. And that is how I wound up in a place like this prison…with a cloud of a life-sentence hanging over my heard.
In closing, what the devil meant for evil, my heavenly Father turned it around for my good when I placed my trust in His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus…old things are past away, and behold; all things are made new (II Corinthians 5:17). Today, my security is in the true and Living God “Yahweh”, the One who gives eternal life to all that believe and place their trust in the finished work on the cross. Our belief in Christ’s death on the cross as the payment for our sin assures us of eternal life…that’s real security! May you consider making the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior, if you haven’t already! God Bless!
Your brother in Christ, For eternity…Stan the Man!
