life after

Summer 2026

“Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, ‘You also are not one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said…”

I looked at the prison bars, which kept on distracting me from reading the scriptures. Each cell was empty and in front of me was a group of men whose bodies are tattooed and well-built. They were prisoners of their own sins. The day that I was told that I would be the one to minister to them, a huge part of me was filled with excitement. Who doesn’t get excited when given an opportunity to share the gospel of God? Most especially, when you can relate to their situation. I never came to prison, but I almost. If not because of God, I would be like these men whose lives revolve within the corners of this building. David, one of the people whom God used to rescue me, motioned his hand telling me to continue my read. He was standing at the other side of the room together with Pastor John. I looked back to my Bible, finding the line where I stopped across the book of John.

“’I am not.’” I cleared my throat. “26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ 27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.”

Peter again denied it, that echoed in my head.

Denying God was not too difficult for me two years ago. In fact, it was easy as walking in the park. Denying God does not necessarily mean that you pretend that you don’t know Him, but also when we choose to disregard His plans because we have already made our own. And most of the time, we believe that our plans are better than His. It also happens when Christians do not take their stand for God to their non-Christian friends. Sometimes they choose to get along to satisfy their need of belongingness in society. Then at night, they would pray to God and ask for His forgiveness but still do the same thing on the following day. Denying God, an act done out of selfishness and pride. I was once a prisoner of this sin.