Calvin News

Growing up, Shane Browning’s housing situation was fluid. He bounced around foster homes and boys’ homes, left wanting for love and connection.

“I didn’t have solid friendships growing up, so the ones I did have later in life were important to me,” said Browning.

Unfortunately for him, the friendships he kept were associated with bad habits, including doing and selling drugs. That reality coupled with the fact he was festering anger from his life’s circumstances proved to be a recipe for destruction.

“I wasn’t around people who taught me how to properly think,” said Browning.

All hope seemed lost

In January 2007, it all came to a head when Shane Browning was sentenced to life without parole for first-degree murder.

“For me, this sentence communicated in no uncertain terms that I was irredeemable,” said Browning. “Under the weight of this sentence, any chance of redemption or better days ahead seemed forever out of my reach.

“My understanding of what society thought of me is that I was a throw away, that I shouldn’t expect much from life or dare dream of contributing anything to the world.”

As Browning entered prison, that reality seemed to lock in.

“Under that assumption as you might imagine I could have easily drowned in my pain and regrets and allow the currents of those expectations to draw me into a much deeper abyss of nonexistence,” said Browning.

Seeing glimmers of hope

But, though Browning struggled to forgive himself over the years and admitted prison to be a dark place, he said that, even in the midst of hopelessness, he saw glimmers of human kindness, love, and compassion.

“It was in the flickering of this light that I saw the genuine care of selfless folks that gave me hope and kept me going,” said Browning. “Over the years, I’d encounter these beautiful individuals from all kinds of places and backgrounds. Some from expected places, others from areas I would have never expected.”

While at Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan’s upper peninsula, Browning received an unexpected email from the Calvin Prison Initiative program inviting lifers to apply.

While Browning said he thought and prayed about it, he also admitted he wasn’t close to God. And yet, he says he felt God nudging him to grow as a leader. So, he applied, was accepted, and in Summer 2022 transferred to Handlon Correctional Facility to start in CPI’s eighth cohort.

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Discovering a new identity in community

“Nothing prepared me for what I found and continue to find in the Calvin community. Not only did it completely shatter my notion that society thought me unworthy of redemption or having anything positive or meaningful to contribute, but I discovered a community formed in love and respect with a unique ability to highlight the intrinsic value in people,” said Browning.

Browning says meeting with CPI professors and staff has shown him what love looks like. “One of the greatest things in my experience is being able to see what genuine love is, love that doesn’t expect anything in return. They [professors and staff] love God and God is allowing that love to come through to us.”

Seeing changed lives inside the fences

He's also seeing examples of CPI alums living this out all around him.

“I discovered a place where guys like me were already making a difference,” said Browning. “For us, this CPI experience is not only about higher education, but more importantly learning how to be a better neighbor, friend, father, husband, son, brother, while walking with God and allowing him to take charge of our lives and work in our hearts.”

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For Browning, he’s realizing that God has a calling on his life too.

Embracing God’s grace, equipped to lead

“Forgiving yourself is one of the hardest things I’ve found to do,” said Browning. “I want to help people heal. There’s a lot of hurting people, and I believe God is going to open paths for me to help them.”

And Browning knows that it’s not his works, but God’s grace that will bring true freedom.

“The moment when the focus of your life shifts from your badness to His goodness and the question becomes not ‘what have I done’ but ‘what can He do?’ release from remorse can happen. Miracle of miracles,” said Browning, quoting writer John Claypool. “You can forgive yourself, because you are forgiven, accept yourself because you are accepted, and begin to build up the very places you once tore down. There is grace to help in every time of trouble and that grace is the secret to being able to forgive ourselves.”