Mark Albon is a man who has lived quite an up and down life – most of it down. He would tell you that so many good things have been given to him but that for the majority of his 53 years he led a very shallow existence. Mark was going through the motions, but nothing gave him the satisfaction he was looking for. He would catch himself looking at others and wondering why he did not feel anything, why he could not enjoy the life he had.

Miserably unhappy, Mark felt no joy and saw no color in what he experienced: “I just knew something was really, really wrong. I was hopeless. Eventually my unhappiness and dissatisfaction led to depression and alcoholism. I had a beautiful house, five beautiful children, a great home and a good job, but I was just miserable.”

Mark’s problems understandably affected his family: “When you are miserable all the time, it shows. I would walk into the room and the plants would practically wilt; children did not want to be around me; newborn babies placed in my arms would suddenly start crying.”

Although he tried his best to fake it, Mark could only mask his true feelings for so long unless alcohol was involved: “The only time I could laugh was when I was drinking and that only lasted for so long. My drinking got so bad. The good job, I lost it. My wonderful wife, she wanted a divorce. My family, they did not want to be around me.”

In legal trouble and not knowing what to do, Mark made his way to a residential treatment facility located in Yonkers, NY: “I was on death’s door when I showed up at Shepherd’s Flock. I had just gotten out of intensive care, where I had been in an alcohol induced coma for three days. There wasn’t much left of me; I had lost everything by the time I arrived – my job, my wife, my kids, my health, and possibly my freedom since it looked like I was going to jail.

“I was 50 years old and so lost. I was stubborn, proud, and foolish. God had tried to talk to me so many times, but I never listened. I had always turned away. I was at a crossroads; I was either going to turn to God or die. Honestly, I was real, real close to death when on my knees in a chapel at Shepherd’s Flock, I reached out to God: ‘God, I am so tired. I am so tired of all this. Can you help me?’

“He picked me up, washed me off, and lifted me into His arms the way a Father lifts his son. He loved me; He held me; He carried me. He brought me through.”

However, Mark’s crying out to God did not solve all of his problems immediately. He had been delivered from a living hell, but he needed to walk out his full recovery. Mark found the peace he had been looking for – fear and anxiety were replaced by purpose and identity. Mark discovered he was a son of God, a member of His family. Everything blossomed from there.

Afte six months, Mark was ready to take his first steps back in the real world. Having been surrounded by Godly men, helping him along the way, he was ready to go home. A new man had replaced the old; Mark was a new creation in Christ and was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Although all that was true, Mark still had to deal with the possibility of going to prison for two years. Before coming to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ, he had been on two years of probation for some “serious lapses in judgment” (as he calls them). Because Mark had violated his probation, his attorney did not think there was anything he could do for him. In fact, right before they walked into court, his lawyer told him to be prepared to serve the time.

Mark knew what his attorney said was true. So, with his Bible in his hand he sat down and prayed, “Lord, Your will be done. If I go to prison, go with me. Protect me. Use me to help others.”

When Mark finished his prayer, he opened his Bible. It fell open to Psalm 118. His eyes fell to verses five and six: “In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

Mark thought to himself, “Could it be I am getting out of this?”

Getting up, not sure what was going to happen, Mark walked into the courtroom and took his place. Then, something strange happened. After the first charge was read, the prosecuting attorney declared, “We are not going to prosecute this one.” Surprise turned to shock as one charge after another was read, each followed by what became the prosecuting attorney’s stock response: “We are not going to prosecute this one.”

Mark still tells the story with a mixture of disbelief and wonder: “No one understood it…me, my attorney, the judge. There was nothing left at the end; I walked out a free man. There were a lot of confused people in that court room. I knew what had happened, but they certainly did not. I got another chance. God set me free! He set me free from prison that day. But more importantly He had already set me free from the spiritual prison I had been held in my entire life.”

That was several years ago. And for Mark, it just keeps getting better and better. His wife, two daughters, and a son all have chosen to make a similar decision for Christ and now worship with him each week at their home church. Seeing the radiance of God in and through them is a wonderful thing.