When I Was in Prison...

Charles W. Colson died a short while ago at the age of 80. Mr. Colson was the one-time special counsel to President Nixon, and he served seven months of a one-to-three year sentence in a federal prison for obstruction of justice. He pleaded guilty to the charge because he defamed Daniel Ellsberg during the Pentagon Papers case. Mr. Colson entered his  guilty plea directly contrary to the advice of his legal counsel because, having become a Christian, he was eager to shed off the "old man." Based on his experience in prison, as short as it was, he founded Prison Fellowship which ministers to prison inmates.

My experience with Prison Fellowship began in 1988, about one year after I became a Christian. I was among a group of people associated with Prison Fellowship who were permitted to minister to the inmates of California Department of Corrections Honor Camp, located on the grounds of Soledad State Prison. The inmates had been sentenced to the Honor Camp because they were first-time felons of relatively minor crimes and were considered to be low risk. They often assisted the California Department of Forestry firefighters during the perennial autumn brush fire season. 

The inmates were young, usually less than twenty-five years old, married, and many had not completed high school. Some had been in and out of the state juvenile and foster care system. Most of the inmates had an edginess about them, and several of them recognized that their time in the Honor Camp was their last chance to get their act together. If they were to get into trouble with the law again, it was very possible, and in fact probable, that they would wind up behind the walls of Soledad.

We were permitted into the Honor Camp once a week on Thursday evenings. Since there were four ministry teams, my commitment was to meet with the inmates on the last Thursday of the month. We held our Bible studies in the visitors room of the camp's administration building, using materials provided by Prison Fellowship and supplemented by our own study. The studies were not too difficult to prepare, usually because the two or three inmates who regularly attended were very eager to learn more of the Bible. They had more questions to ask me than I had to discuss with them!

There were two valuable lessons I learned from my time with these men. First, and I am recalling the lesson that one man in particular taught me, was the pouring out of one's heart in prayer. This man would plead with God to deliver him from all of his sinfulness. He freely acknowledged to God the weaknesses of which he was aware existed within himself and would prevail upon God to be conformed more and more to the image of Christ. There was no tacit presumption that God will sanctify him more and more. No, this man actively pursued God to perform that sanctification within him.

The men of the Honor Camp also taught me that time is a valuable commodity to an inmate. It is what they do - time. When they were out fighting fires, they were marking time. When they were cleaning the facilities, they were marking time. Whatever they did, they were marking time. So, if you were late to a study, as I once was, they had no compunction about telling you in no uncertain terms what the value of time was to them. In the Honor Camp, time was never in short supply; there was always too much of it.

My best experience with these men occurred on Thanksgiving evening in 1988. I was attending postgraduate school in Monterey, and my widowed mother and youngest sister (fifteen years-old) were living with me. My wife, however, was living in San Diego, where she was also attending postgraduate school. We saw each other about every six weeks, and I was very eager to be with her for the long Thanksgiving weekend. However, the issue of time kept nagging at me.

At our October study, the inmates mentioned to me that since the next time we personally met as a group would be Thanksgiving, they thought that the study would not be held because, they assumed, I would be home with my family. Their faces lit up when I told them that in fact, Lord willing, I intended to spend Thanksgiving evening with them. The man who admonished me about the value of time to the inmates said, "Well, I guess you learned your lesson." It was the most left-handed thank you I have ever received. And it is one of my most cherished. 

That Thanksgiving evening only three of us met. (Bible studies are sometimes in a tough competition with Thanksgiving Day football!) We read a bit of Scripture, prayed in turn, and repeated this process until it was time to leave. That night we prayed earnestly. We prayed for grace and wisdom; we prayed for each others families; we prayed for safety and holiness; we prayed for the guards. The guards, who would pass through the room quietly every half-an-hour or so, seemed reluctant to break us up in the middle of our prayer time. They were kind enough to allow us an extra twenty minutes beyond our stop time. See, even to the prison guards, time is everything.

And time is everything. A prayer of Moses is recorded in Psalm 90, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12, ESV) I give thanks to God for Chuck Colson and the ministries which he started. Mr. Colson was right. The judicial and prison systems do need reform. While I do not believe in a "social gospel," the meaning of which varies depending upon whom you talk with, I do believe that the Gospel is social. The Gospel has a transforming power over society because it has a transforming power within the men, women, and children of society. It has a transforming power because it is the Word of God.

 

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?                                                                                                                                      Matthew 25:35-37 (ESV)

I encourage you to examine the ministry of Prison Fellowship and ask yourself if there is a role there that you can fulfill in it. It will be difficult and challenging. It will be an additional scheduling conflict. It will bring you into contact with people whom you would not ordinarily meet. It will push you out of your comfort zone. But, we Christians know that we too were once bound and shackled and lying helpless and hopeless in a dark prison. And then Jesus visited us. The darkness was dispelled and we were plunged into light, the glory of the only begotten Son of God. The chains fell off of us when the Son cried aloud to us, "Come forth!" And we were set free from the guilt, the shame, and the power of sin. We are set free to live unto righteousness.

If Christ so visited us, let us go therefore, in his Name and in his Spirit, to visit those who are not only imprisoned in cells, but who are also imprisoned by their sin. Let us carry that Gospel into the walls of prison so that these men and women may finally be set free.