It never fails. When I tell people that I work in a prison they say, “That
must be interesting.” Interesting really isn’t the word for it. I think
words that better hit the mark are “incredible” or “unbelievable” or
“ridiculous” or “amazing”.
Not that any of these words describe the actual
work that I do, but instead the behavior of some of the prisoners. Having
worked there almost two decades you would think that I would have gotten
used to what I see so often from some of our more disruptive inmates. I have
often wondered why I haven’t. However, this week I think I realized why I am
still so startled by some of the inmates behaviors. It is because I am
looking at something quite disturbing. It is sin, full grown.
I will try my best to explain what I am saying. I routinely work with men
who are filled with hate, violent thoughts, rage, destructive tendencies,
crass language, and insensitivity to anyone or anything around them. They
think nothing of saying sexually lewd or violent things to female staff, or
calling staff every terrible name in the book. They offend every race (even
their own), religion, culture, and gender. They give no thought to throwing
their own excrement on staff or smearing it all over the cell they are in.
They destroy things in their cell, threaten us, scream for hours on end in
anger, pound on their cell doors, and try to assault us. Amazingly though,
it doesn’t stop there. Some of them become so consumed by sin that they
don’t even stop when it comes to destroying themselves. There evil thought
life spills over into a “by all means necessary” mentality that has no
limits, including injuring themselves to accomplish what they want. And yes,
I deal with this almost every day (on occasion I get a “quiet day”).
This isn’t newly conceived sin. This isn’t sin that has been nurtured for a
few years. This isn’t the product of some poorly thought out plans or
intentions. This is sin full grown. And what does God’s word say about sin?
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be
tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted
when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then,
after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is
full-grown, gives birth to death. – James 1:13-15.
Society has come up with an lot of explanations for the thought life and
behaviors of mankind. Some of them are valid, many of them are not. None of
them reference sin or that the situations that we often find ourselves in we
gave birth to.
I hope this blog hasn’t been to disturbing to you today. It is a little
glimpse into the “world” I live in. I shared it because we can never take
sin too lightly. Our desires to do what is wrong start out innocent enough
but we all must be careful. What seems to be a welcome friend can quickly
turn into a terrible consuming fire that destroys everything and everyone
around us, including ourselves. Sin is a raging force. Don’t mistake its’
capabilities or intentions. It will grab hold of you, believer or not, if
you don’t through the power of God address it. And it is ugly. Very, very
ugly. You don’t want to see sin full grown. When it has reached its’ full
size there is no room for anything else in someone’s life.
And what does God tell us soon follows? Death. Are you surprised? I’m not.
I can see it lurking at the door of men that I work with all the time. God’s
word it true. It is disturbingly true.
How about this? Let’s live for God and do what is right. Sound better?
Trust God and glorify Him. It is much, much better.
For Him,