A Story From Our Men's Shelter

This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. Luke 15:24

A t-shaped scar over Clifford Ellenwood’s right eye serves as testament to his reckless drinking days and the night a beer bottle smashed into his face. “I wandered, and I was lost. I was very, very lost.”

According to Webster, the word prodigal comes from the Latin prodigere, to squander, and means to be recklessly extravagant, wasteful. Clifford Ellenwood was recklessly wasteful. Without regard for his own safety or the safety of others, he wantonly threw aside valuable resources – his mind, his time, his life, his true friends. “I should have died.” Clifford was extravagant in his pursuit of pleasure – girls, drugs, alcohol. Clifford was a prodigal.

LEAVING HOME

The parable of the prodigal son may be one of the clearest illustrations of biblical grace. The younger of two sons turned his back on everything his father held dear and left for a distant land where he spent his inheritance wantonly in pursuit of pleasure.

Clifford did not have a financial inheritance. What he squandered was more valuable than that.

Almost fifteen years before Clifford found himself at the Union Gospel Mission, he had accepted Christ through the Mission’s outreach at Juvenile Detention.  He was 16. When he got out of detention, however, his old friends were waiting and the slide back into his old lifestyle was effortless. In an effort to get back on the right track, Cliff joined the Master’s Commission – a year-long intensive training in biblical knowledge and character at Zion Christian Center. He learned the truth of God’s love and his own personal value. After demonstrating the discipline and drive to complete the program, after being sponsored and mentored, Cliff turned his back on the truth and walked away from his church home. “After a full year of ‘yes, Lord, yes, Lord,’ I went out and drank again. I went back to old friends where I felt comfortable, where I felt like I belonged, and it was nothing but hell after that for almost ten years.”

LOSING EVERYTHING

For the prodigal, the party never stopped . . . until the money did. Then he was left with nothing – no money, no home, no standing and no friends.

Clifford described his years in a distant land like this: “There’s no guarantee when you live that life of sin, and you come out from the protection of the Lord, and you’re out there like a sheep among wolves . . . and that’s what I was. I was scared, but I couldn’t find a way out. I believed at one time I was never gonna make it out. I lost all hope.”

When Clifford got out of jail in November 2005, the thought immediately came to him, Go to the Union Gospel Mission, but he pushed the idea aside. A homeless shelter was the last place he wanted to go, and he wouldn’t . . . until he had cut himself off from every other tie. “I had nothing. I had nothing.” He partied hard on January 1, 2006 and afterward realized, “Nobody wants me around because I’ve been such a jerk, and I don’t know what to do, so I’m gonna go down to the Mission and just stay for the night.”

HOMECOMING

The prodigal returned home in rags, prepared to grovel, but the Father didn’t give him the chance.  He ran to embrace his son and called for a celebration:  “My son is alive and has come home!”

When he stepped through the east door of the Men’s Mission, Clifford had the sensation of coming home – not so much physically as spiritually. As the Mission’s warmth welcomed him, he realized God was also welcoming him. The next Sunday, with a repentant and hopeful heart, Cliff went back to Zion Christian Center. He still carried a heavy weight of guilt and shame, but he needn’t have worried.  “I got there, and it was nothing but open arms. Man, they were just waiting for me to come home.”

The Mission and Zion have been partners with Cliff in his recovery. Of the Mission, Cliff said, “This place basically saved my life that way – by allowing me to grow.”

The prodigal came home, and last June, a large group from Zion came to celebrate Clifford’s graduation from the Mission’s Grace Recovery Program.