By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— Chief Deputy Chris George, with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, shared his personal testament of faith at the Greater Shelby County Chamber’s 18th annual Prayer Breakfast Nov. 24.

“I want to take this opportunity to tell you about how we can serve the community, serve each other, but most importantly serve God,” George said. “My only prayer for me today, a selfish prayer for myself, is that anything that I say today is for the glory of God.”

Raised by his Nanny (grandmother), George attributed many things in his life to the cornerstones she taught him in that house.

The Marine and 18-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office told the story of his life, illustrating sources of the anger he harbored in his early years towards his mother, father and one of his mother’s abusive boyfriends.

He said he held a lot of hatred towards his mother for her choices and her addiction, his father for not being there for him and the boyfriend for holding his mother captive and abusing her.

Slowly he told the attendees how he let go of that hate in his heart, that sin in his heart.

The older George got, the more he thought about that boyfriend who had hurt his mother. George said he hated the man and would often think about what he would do to the man once he was released from prison.

George was working at the SCSO when his Nanny called to tell him the man had been released from prison. She also told him: “God is just. He is righteous and holy. You are not the final judge. God is.”

Although it didn’t immediately change his thinking, George said it made a difference.

“It sunk in because those cornerstones were in place,” George said. “I began to— I’m not to go so far as to say that I forgave that man— but I began to see that what caused him to do that was the same thing that was in my heart. It was sin. Sin is sin.”

George’s mother passed away at 56 due to her addiction, and George expressed that he had realized that drug addicts, while victims of their own decisions no longer have control over those decisions.

The first time George held his first son, now 11, George said he knew that not being around was the best thing his father could have done for him.

Because he never had a father there for him, George said he will always be there for his boys. George and his wife, Lisa, live in Chelsea with their three boys.

Throughout the years, George said he has often asked the question, “Why was I allowed to live?”

In addition to many rough circumstances in his younger years, George has had his teeth knocked out, he’s been stabbed, he’s been hit over the head with a beer bottle, he’s both broken bones and had bones broken, chased bad guys, been sucker punched, been sued five times as a cop, almost drown in his car and fallen off a two-story roof.

“God knows everything,” George said. “He is the why. When I ask myself these questions, why all these things happened. He is the answer.”