For a free pdf download of this resource click here
Darrell was a mess, a junkie, an offender, a problem. At 11 he was stealing car parts, by 16 he was selling class A drugs to feed a £300-aday heroin addiction. Before long, things got even worse. The need for money to secure his drugs kept building and eventually he got involved with some serious stuff. He played the part of a getaway driver in an armed robbery, but was caught by the police and sentenced to years in prison. It wasn’t like this was a surprise, Darrell said: ‘I genuinely felt dead on the inside and didn’t feel anything apart from hate and anger and guilt. Where I was knocking about and the people I was hanging round, crime was everywhere and everybody was doing it, so it was only a matter of time before I got involved.’
Prison didn’t seem to make an impact on Darrell, and it certainly didn’t stop him getting into trouble. Darrell said: ‘I would go looking for opportunities to cement my reputation. I would do violent things for no reason - I put a lad in hospital after setting about him with a snooker ball in a sock because I thought he looked at me in the wrong way.
Yet in prison, something changed. Darrell met a person who changed his life. Somehow, moment by moment, inch by inch, he turned his life around. He saw out his sentence and got out of prison, settled down with a wife and kids and got himself a real, honest job, where he can help the lives of others.
• What do you think of Darrell’s story?
• Do you think it’s possible to turn things around?
• Do you think stories like this are common, or once you’ve started off down a bad road, is it too difficult to turn around?
• What’s your favourite comeback story?
• Have you ever tried to make a big change in your life? What was difficult about it?
The people who changed Darrell’s life were Christians; they told him about Jesus, and Darrell decided to leave his old life behind and become a Christian. Darrell now leads a church and tries to have a similar impact on others. At the heart of the Christian story is the ultimate comeback, a comeback for the ages, a comeback so big it’s changed the very history of mankind. Read Luke 24:1-12.
• What do you think of this story?
• Do you think Jesus came back to life? Why?
• If Jesus did come back to life, what difference does it make to the world?
• What difference does it make to your life?
