Part 1 (Portrait of the Past) — Part 2 (Diamonds in the Rough)


Diamonds and several other precious gemstones have value based on their clarity. What makes a diamond clear? Having as little dirt as possible, inside and out.

Lost

When Mark came down to Florida from New Jersey, he was full of dirt. If he was any kind of diamond in the rough, you couldn’t tell him apart from the dirt he lay in. Drugs, anger, aggression, increasingly poor decisions. His head was clouded. The man couldn’t think clearly and he acted like it.

In fact, he got to the point where his addictions were costing him $1500 dollars each day, not to mention the $1500 for his partner. That meant Mark had to scrounge up $3000 every single day. (That’s a lot of money, in case you didn’t know.) So, the man would rob, harass, and hold up anyone in the same game he was (running/using drugs) like his life depended on it (although, the life he lived did depend on it). But it got a hold of him eventually.

At the Bottom, Looking Up

All that Mark Gray could see was brokenness. He looked at his life and only saw rejection, pain, addiction, and abuse (both to him and by him). Mark looked at his life and saw a man sleeping behind dumpsters, even eating out of them—not because he had to, but because he couldn’t think straight to do otherwise. He saw no value in any of his past. Mark saw no value in his present. And he saw no value in his future. There was no part of his existence that he wanted to continue. He wanted his life to end. He was determined to end it. But right before he did, he saw someone.

Officer AJ. As you’d expect, he’d normally stay far away from police. No one in his situation would want to go talk to one. But again, he wasn’t thinking clearly. He approached her. He told her through tears that he just needed help. And she did something that, to him, was unthinkable.

She treated him like he had value. That officer looked at him like his life was worth something—despite all the thoughts his father had put in his head since he was young, despite the curses yelled at him by other people on the street, despite the fact that all the drugs seemed to have sucked every purpose in life out of him except to find more drugs. She treated him with respect. Officer AJ didn’t look at him like the dirt he thought he was; she looked at him like a precious gemstone, albeit with a little dirt on him. And she brought him to Kissimmee’s Park Place Behavioral Healthcare facilities.

Clarity

The first day in Park Place was not pleasant. Mark was still suicidal. He was still unable to think straight. Nothing was apparent. He still had a terribly foggy view of himself.

On the second day, things started to change. Mark wasn’t receiving any treatments. Because of how he presented himself to the center, he didn’t receive much intervention. But on that second day and for the following few days, Mark began to see more clearly. He was able to step outside of his life, outside of the game he was running, outside of his body’s drive for more drugs. With that little more crystal of a perspective, Mark saw who he could be, what he was suppose to be.

He wouldn’t go so far as to say he heard the audible voice of God. However, all the things he knew about God came flooding back to him. He had read the Bible a good deal in his past–Mark’s mother was a woman with incredible faith up to her dying day. But Mark had refused to believe that God could be interested in him, that faithful living was possible for him. He refused to believe that his life could be used by God on account of all the terrible things that happened to him or because of him.

At least, he refused until he lay there in his room in Park Place. Then the love people tried to tell him about for years finally found the right ground to sink in.

Love

I’ll tell you this: When I found out how much Jesus Christ loved me, when I found out how much God loves me—and I tear up as I speak—when I found out how much He cares for me, and wants the best for me, and that He had a plan for my life, and He wants to lead and guide me, and that He wants to go before me, and then He wants to come with meall these types of thingsWhen I found out how much He cares about Mark Gray, I couldn’t help but love him. Because ain’t nobody care about me like that!

I found what I was looking for all my life with women and drugs and ya know. But then he entered into my heart and created a heart of flesh, man, instead of a heart of stone.  I didn’t have to wear that mask on the street anymore. I didn’t have to be cool. I didn’t have to be nothin’. And he loved me for it! I get excited when I talk about it!

Cleaning Up

Was his life perfect right away? No! Was Mark perfect right away? Absolutely not!

After his release from Park Place, people probably would have still only seen a dubiously reformed drug addict/felon with no home and no source of income. That left him with some issues. For example, if you were to walk up to someone and say, “Hey man, I just got out of the psych-facility, I just got over addictions to more drugs than I can count on my fingers, I’m homeless, I’m a released felon, and I have no home… Can you help me out?” You probably wouldn’t find much help.

Regardless, he still needed to provide shelter and food for himself and his partner (soon-to-be wife). So for a few months, until a wave of conviction flooded over him, he still felt he had to “mix-and-match” just to make ends meet. He had to lie to people just to get enough money for food and necessities most of the time.

But in the course of about a year, he married his unbelievably supportive wife Jackie Gray (who has an incredible testimony of her own), he had a son with her, he went to peer counseling for recovery, he found work in the ways of cleaning contracts with churches, he remained totally clean, and he only fell deeper and deeper in love with Christ.

Finding Diamonds

Since he totally immersed himself into God’s love, into Christ redemption, and into living by the Spirit, Mark has begun multiple ministries:

A few years after receiving peer counseling in a Wellness Recovery Action Program (WRAP), Mark obtained certification to be a WRAP facilitator. Through this, he extends assistance in managing and recovering from mental illnesses or addictions. He offers what he himself received—clarity.

After all his experience living on the streets and living for drugs, Mark now runs his own para-church ministry—Gray’s House of Hope. Over the course of a few months, he and his wife started to deliver sandwiches to the homeless on a regular basis. In his own words, “I didn’t want them to have to lie just to get some food.” With the support of local churches and businesses, they now deliver so much more than food and water. Gray’s House of Hope offers and provides clothes, hygiene products, non-prescription health supplies, shoes, glasses, assistance getting to doctor’s appointments, and help finding job opportunities.

If that weren’t enough, Mark Gray also partners with Kissimmee Christian Church in a jail ministry, serving the inmates of Osceola County Jail.

I’m telling you, I tear about it as I drive and see where God brought me out of, man. It is such an amazing feeling even to go back. The jails that held me when I was a liability, now open the doors because I’m an asset. Now I can go in and speak to prisoners and inmates and tell them about the goodness of God… let them know you can get clarity, you know, let them know you can get education, you can be your own advocate, and you can get support.

Gems Again

As I sat with Mark Gray, I took a break from his story to ask about the jewelry he was wearing—a few rings on his fingers, nothing too flashy or extravagant. One is a solid metal wedding band and the two others have single gemstones embedded on each.

Every time Mark wears them, he’s reminded of the times he constantly bought then pawned off his jewelry. He thinks back to the times when he constantly stripped the rings off his fingers just to make a quick dollar—money that would be thrown away on a reckless life.

More than that, he is reminded of his value as a human being and as a child of God. He doesn’t think of his value because the rings have inherent value. No, he recalls the story his Savior told about the son of a wealthy man—the son who wasted every cent he had on prostitutes and drinking, only to wind up destitute, drooling over pig-feed. Mark thinks back to the wealthy man’s response when the broken son returns home, begging for forgiveness:

The father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet… For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.

Luke 15

Mark is the child of one incredible Father. He is in the household of someone offering him more than he deserves, more than he could ever ask for. There is confidence in a future because of that. He was dead to himself, but now is alive in Christ. He was lost in the rough, but was found as a clear and precious stone.


Part 1 (Portrait of the Past) — Part 2 (Diamonds in the Rough)


1 Comment

Brother Mark, Pt. 1 - From the Dust Stories · March 3, 2019 at 2:34 pm

[…] Part 1 (A Portrait of the Past) — Part 2 (A Diamond in the Rough) […]

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