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Earl Smith was immersed in a life of drugs and gangs until his encounter with God changed his outlook. Now he is a chaplain in San Quentin Prison. Earl Smith came out of the darkness, and into the LIGHT!
Here is his story!
San Quentin has been host to some of California's worst criminals. For over 150 years, it has earned a reputation as the state's oldest and toughest prison. Since 1933, San Quentin has housed only men and it contains California's only gas chamber and death row for condemned inmates. San Quentin is also the workplace of chaplain Earl Smith.
"There's a reason why every guy that's in prison is here. They didn't just show up here," Smith said. "And as long as you keep that in mind, the setting is just the setting. What I've found is that prison is not as bad as some people think. And it's probably sometimes worse than I may think it is. So, it's a medium in between. "
Chaplain Smith has ministered in this setting for two decades. He's seen inmates come and go and has developed an approach to reach as many as possible.
"First of all, I try not to find out why they're here," Smith said. "I'm not really concerned with why they're here. I think my job, from the day they arrive, is to prepare them to leave. And the thing I've learned early on in this ministry is that you're incarcerated way in advance of ever arriving in prison. There's something that incarcerated you and caused you to be bound to the point that you would come into a man-made facility. And that's the point I start with. What caused you to get to this point that you would be incarcerated in a man-made facility? Then that's usually a breaking point for everyone."
Smith reached his breaking point eight years before he became San Quentin's chaplain.
"Probably from the time I was 11 years old until I was 19, I was involved in drugs and gangs. Basically I got involved in it because I thought that was fun. That was exciting to me," Smith said.
Until one night when Smith had an unannounced visitor.
"A guy knocked at my door and said he had come to pay me my money. He had owed me some money for a while. He brought another guy with him that I didn't know," Smith said. "And the guy was there to kill me. You know, it was like a contract. He was going to kill me and they would be fine. When the guy pulled a gun out to shoot me, he just stood over me and shot me."
As the shooter emptied his gun, Smith's dedication to a life of crime reached its destructive climax. He had been such a menace to the neighborhood, that many were content to just let him die…even the police. Finally a neighbor called an ambulance.
"When my Father came in (to the hospital), he brought the doctor back and he asked the doctor, 'How bad is he?' And the doctor said, 'He's not going to make it.' And I looked up and my dad had grabbed the doctor and he said, 'Doctor, you better do what you do best, and I'm going to go do what I do best.' And my dad walked away to go pray."
That's when Smith received a message that would change his life.
"I was there, in this room by myself, and then this voice comes in and says very clearly, 'You're not going to die, I have something for you to do.' And here's what He said, 'You're going to be a chaplain in the San Quentin Prison.'"
Smith wasn't sure what to make of this strange encounter at the time. But he was touched by God and miraculously able to leave the hospital with only minor injuries. Throughout the ordeal his father never left his side.
"I remember my dad had said, 'You know what son, you're a rebel, but you're God's rebel, and He's going to use you for something.' And he would just remind me of that every day."
Over the next several years, Smith got an education and prepared for the ministry. In July of '83, he indeed became the chaplain of San Quentin prison. After only five months on the job, Smith came face to face with the man who had shot him eight years before.
"A lot of times we don't realize how long we carry things. And we think we've released them but we haven't released them, we've just pushed them back," Smith said. "When I saw the guy, I realized that I still hated him. I was angry with him. And I was mad. I remember walking down the tier and the devils said, 'There he is. You can tell someone and they'll do something to him.' I walked down that tier and I started crying and the guys were asking, 'What's wrong with you chap?' And I couldn't say anything. I got back in front of the guy. He looked at me, and I said, 'Hey, I need to tell you something. I need to thank you, because God used you to get to me.' It was the hardest thing I said. But when I said it, I realized that after all those years of studying, and after all that stuff I thought, that was when I released the burden. That's when the burden was released, when I was able to look at this guy and say, "it's ok."
That forgiveness was a turning point in Smith's life. Since then he's thrived as the prison's chaplain. He's also the team chaplain for the San Francisco 49ers, the San Francisco Giants, and the Golden State Warriors.
"The thing that's interesting about prison, and working with athletes, it's just men. I tell people it's a joke because they all wear numbers. I mean the guys in prison have numbers and the guys I work with in sports have numbers. And if I remember that, then I say they're just men," Smith said. "There's one segment that makes a lot of money for what they do, and there's another segment that doesn't. But at the end of the day they have some of the same conflicts in their lives, they have some of the same difficulties that they encounter. And the same counsel you can give one guy, you can give another guy. The reality of it is that the athletes need as much assistance as anyone else."
Smith says the same advice that he teaches to prisoners can apply to our lives too.
"Whatever the crime is that they arrested you for, busted you for, and gave you this time for - you did it. Now, what do you do? The crime will never change, but the man that committed the crime can change. And that's the burden. You release that man and allow the new man to come in."
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-18).
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
(1Timothy 3:16)
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