Lisa Tucci-Caselli
Broken Chains is a Divinely inspired book of painfully honest, narrative testimonial poetry.
It's story depicts a mother's, daughter's and anyone's struggle through the desperation of addiction, and the lonely hoplessness of today's prison system. It's a journey of faith that brings Light into the darkness.
They say, sometimes, that you have to go through something to really be able to grasp the miraculous gift that Jesus has given to us.
My name is Lisa Tucci-Caselli, a sinner, a drug addict, accused murderer, and outcast of today's society. I am the one you turn your head from in the store, turn your back on in the prisons and lock your doors from at night. I am also the one Jesus chose to hold the pen for these poems of inspiration and hope. Chosen from the furnace of affliction, He built these testimonies, through forgiveness, mercy and Grace.
Broken Chains is my first published work. It is however, the beginning of this "Jericho Road" that I now walk with Jesus.
As an inspirational speaker, it is with heartfelt prayer and hope that this book reaches those souls still in the darkness. For these are the ones that Jesus truly came to save.
For countless years I suffered in the crippling grip of addiction. On one terrible night I was arrested for a horrible crime and put in jail. Dope sick, scared and torn from my family, I spent the next nine years in five different federal and state prisons.
It was during those first few days, as I lay helpless and shaking on my bunk, that Jesus reached out His precious hand, and opened the heart of a sinner such as me. Immediately words began to pour out of my spirit as tears fell from my soul. With each tear, God cleansed me of a lifetime of hurt and pain. The moment my pen hit the scraps of paper towels and tissue, which at times were all I had, and I began to write "Broken Chains"; for the first time in my life I was FREE.
The Testimony Endures...
I struggle to reach every mountain top,
But still You love me just the way that I am.
I felt Your gentle prod when I wanted to give up and stop.
And when I would fall, You would reach out Your hand.
Your Spirit surrounded me as I sat in the darkness.
You became the light that lead my way.
All those times when I thought that I could never do this,
You helped me hold on for just one more day.
The shame and the guilt I could not remember,
Of a life given to utter despair.
You chose me with love, Your voice so tender.
Though I couldn't see You, I knew You were there.
Down every dark alley and lost in the streets;
Through hospitals, jails, and prisons;
With compassion and mercy You laid a path for my feet,
And showered Your grace upon me, an unforgiven.
I praise You, my Savior, and good faithful friend;
Because Your burden was greater than mine.
I fell on the floor, You endured to the end;
And with love You picked me up so many times.
With the sins of the world, like chains on Your shoulders;
You loved me still on the cross.
For the nights when You said, "May my Angels just hold her."
When without You I would have been lost.
I give You my life, that Your will be done,
And Lord, I owe You so very much more.
That through me Your heart might touch just one.
And the testimony of faith will endure.
