Stuart Brash worked the streets of Edinburgh. Main picture: Peter Cordes.,,,
Scottish copper Stuart Brash loved nothing better than the thrill of a Friday night brawl.
As a policeman in Edinburgh in the 1980s, exploding with anger after childhood abuse, the city’s tough pub scene gave him a legal reason for a good fight.
“I loved the job, the excitement of it. I had money, job prospects and I was always fighting,” he says.
Looking back, however, he believes God used this time to teach him a powerful lesson about life and death.
Sudden deaths, murders and suicides were common and Stuart was hardened to them. But the suicide of a young man caused him to start asking some big questions.
“I remember the thoughts running through my head. ‘Why did he do that? Did he not have anything to live for? Where is he now?’”
Time and again, Stuart found himself confronted with death.
As the questions kept coming, he felt a longing for someone he could love and trust.
A few months later he stunned his Christian mother by asking to go to church with her; he was amazed at what he saw.
“There were young guys full of joy, praising God. I was gobsmacked because I didn’t believe you could be a real man and be a Christian. I saw in these guys something I didn’t have and it was like the missing jigsaw piece.”
COLLISION COURSE
Stuart decided to become a Christian, but his decision soon put him on a collision course with his job. His former willingness to commit perjury and ‘lock people up on dodgy evidence’ had gone. Unable to lie on a case soon after, he resigned from the job he loved.
As he began to train as a teacher, God began to set him on a new path.
“All the anger, hatred and bitterness had gone. I forgave people who had really screwed me up, and it released me.”
As a former Freemason, God also set Stuart free of the curses and practices he had bound himself to.
After this, his spiritual life took off, he says. He longed to share his faith, and God began to use him to help people.
“I was on a doorstep in Leith sharing the gospel with someone who said, ‘I don’t believe there’s a God.’
“The word ‘bingo’ came into my head – I sensed that this person was hopelessly addicted to gambling and the family is in a financial mess.
“I told them this, we prayed for them, and they were set free from gambling and became Christians.”
Over the years, Stuart has also launched and pastored churches and worked with young offenders. God has also used him to heal people from blindness, cancer and other physical problems.
“When I was in the police I thought I was living but I was dead inside. Jesus has given me a new life worth living,” he says.
