The Blue Church

After almost nineteen years of working in a prison there is still one thing
I am not used to. Can you guess what it is? It’s imprisoning people. You
would think that after all this time I would have gotten used to the idea of
seeing a human being in a cell. Yet it often occurs to me that this is an
extremely unnatural way for anybody to spend a day, let alone years. Have
you ever pondered the stark realities of such a situation and what society
seems to be saying to a prisoner? You can almost hear the voice of society
communicating:

*       You are not welcome in our society
*       You are no longer free to go where you want to go.
*       You are no longer free to do what you want to do.
*       We routinely will have to place you behind these bars in order to
control you and keep others safe from you.
*       We will decide if and when you see your family or even talk with
them.
*       You will live in this small cell and it will be determined as to
what you can have in it.

It is startling when you think about it, and I have often stared at a
prisoner (especially those who are locked in their cell for twenty three
hours a day), and wondered, “How did you end up in this situation?” Now
don’t get me wrong. I understand that for some of the men that I work with
that if they were let back out into society they would resume harming people
by one means or another and there is an argument for keeping them separate
from others. Still, even for the worst of offenders that I work with I can’t
help but feel some sadness over what their lives have become. Whether they
“deserve it” or not is not the subject of this blog. What is the subject of
this blog is that the life of the imprisoned is not the life that God or I
would have wanted for anybody. When I am working with a terribly difficult
inmate I do something that some people would consider foolish. I hope and
sometimes pray for a better life for them. I hope that when I come in the
next day, the day after they have screamed at me, or threatened me, or
caused me a lot of stress, that they will have decided to turn their lives
in a more positive direction.

The sad truth is that many of these men were born into homes where their
home had already been decimated by the choices of their parents. And even if
this wasn’t the case, then right outside their door was a terrible world of
poverty and criminal activity and that some of these guys saw crime as a
means to an end. Some of course saw drugs in that way and drugs were
available right outside of their front window. This of course is not to
dismiss the reality of their own sinful choices, but just to highlight that
for so many of them the tragedy of their lives was already in full swing
before they even took their first step.

Do you know what is also true? That for many of the imprisoned, their
imprisonment began long before society ever shut them in behind a locked
cell door. Slowly and steadily their sinful choices eroded their freedoms,
whether they realized it or not. Perhaps some of them saw it but just didn’t
care because the “reward” seemed worth the loss.

What does all of this have to say to us who are not imprisoned? I believe it
says that we should not be deceived. We too are prone to make sinful choices
while staring right in the face of the coming consequences, and yet say, “I
am going to do this anyway because I am free”. While it is true that for
some that they are not in danger of physical imprisonment, they should be
asking if they are in danger of bondage. Being in bondage to the sin that
they have given ourselves over to.

If this is you, then I pray that this writing is a wake-up call and a
warning to you. Bars me not be closing you in but if you are in bondage to a
sin your freedoms are getting smaller and therefore so are your choices.
Don’t wait until it is too late and the consequences of your sin become
unavoidable. Turn to God and know that He alone has the power to deliver
you. God has said that “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17

If you are in bondage to something, would you allow God to set you free by
the power of His Spirit? And if you are not in bondage but know someone who
is, perhaps you would want to tell them about God and His power to deliver
them from the life of death that they are living.

It is one thing to see a person in jail who is no longer free. It is another
thing to see a person in society who is “free”but in bondage.

God wants us all to be free to live without the enslavement of sin. Do you
need to ask Him to set you free?

For Him,