God's Special Time

In case you haven't heard, I'm going to prison this weekend … When ever I've said that, I just can't get a rise out of anyone. They just look at me, knowing that there's a perfectly sensible explanation to follow. In this case, the explanation is Kairos, an international prison ministry in which Christians from all denominations go to prison, not to preach to the residents, but "to Listen, Listen—Love, Love." You can bet that they have heard plenty about how "bad" they are. One more sermon won't be any more effective than the hundreds they've heard before.

But haven't these people made their own bed? Shouldn't they just lie in it? Isn't our only responsibility to lock them up and keep them contained so that us good people are safe? Here's the problem. To believe that is to actually reduce God's power in this world. Are certain places in this world off limits even to God? But aren't the fact that some people are getting justice by being locked away actually a sign of God's power? If God is only power, then that would be true. But that is not what we are taught? "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1st John 4:8).

As followers of the One who was nailed to a Cross, and yet pleaded, "Forgive them for they know not what they do;" we believe that nothing is more powerful than God's love for the world he made and the human beings made in God's image. No place in the world or in the heart is too dark for God's light to shine. Now, is it possible that some might never open their eyes to that light? Perhaps: but that is their decision. Kairos is a time of decision for the candidates who have applied to come and have been accepted. Will they forgive those who have hurt them? (Don't suppose for a second that those acts as predators toward other human beings have not themselves been preyed on) Will they accept that they are truly loved? Pray that they will do so.

Just to be clear, Kairos is not about getting anybody out of prison before they have served their time. It is not about denying justice, for God is most certainly just. Kairos is about helping them see that wherever they are, on the inside or outside, they are not separated from God's love. That is how powerful our God is; that God's love will go wherever it needs to bring his children to repentance, forgiveness and resurrection. Please pray for myself, Russ and Lili Henderson, Debbie Free and Kathy Wilemon who will be serving the candidates this weekend.