Prison Ministry

When you get involved in prison ministry in many ways you are completely caught off guard by the men you meet. The guys aren’t as tough as they are ordinary. Not physically, but emotionally, as well as spiritually, they are often simply confused and looking for guidance. You often can see a longing, a sense of abandonment, in their faces. Usually their upbringing was tainted with the ravages of abuse and alcoholism. They’re rarely as sure of why they are there, in a chapel or classroom with you, as you would think. But, they’re certain that they have no idea why you are there and what new expectation do you bring? When you combine that with a natural uneasiness that surrounds a prison environment (for the unincarcerated as well as the incarcerated) new surroundings and meeting people for the first time, especially while you get at the root of the issue. Fear! Doing ministry in prison is a constant reminder that we all give in and surrender to fear. In every walk and stage of life it lurks. Freedom is available, hope is potentially constant, but fear is a choice and we all make it whether in a prison defined by bars or spiritually and defined by rebellion.

After some time of getting to know each other and the surroundings, it finally happens, “honesty” a real acceptance of where hope leads and where it doesn’t. Genuine honesty, no holds barred, I find more often behind the fence than outside it these days. I guess that’s because, for some in prison, you either find a way to fight for freedom or you are forced to try even hard to pretend you’re not hurt and you can’t be hurt. Or, you choose the isolation of a cell and the denial that guides your family even to the present day. Sometimes whether incarcerated or not we are just completely shocked to be reminded that we are all hurt and frightened to death of being hurt and abandoned again. That the hurt unmercifully dictates the parameters of a mediocre existence and keeps us from the life we want. Letting life just roll past us is more a “don’t take time to think it through just go with it” cultural phenomenon than a requirement of the life God lays out for us. Why did you schedule yourself so much that you can’t enjoy a short time of uninterrupted peace with the creator of the universe? Why can a guy find himself totally alone in a room crowded with family and friends, time and again and yet never really address why he feels this way?? What is this constant run toward nowhere in particular that drives a man’s life, as opposed to the life he dreams of where relationships comfort and inspire. Where you are not constantly on guard as to what next could go wrong! We’re all hurt and we just don’t want another hurt to deal with. Not ours and certainly not yours. Well it’s not so very different for those “behind the fence.” Teaching them about community and Love (1 Corinthians 13:13) perhaps is the only way to change ourselves.