Readings for today: Galatians 4-6
Several years ago, I remember talking to a friend of mine who had recently gotten out of prison after serving several decades for a violent crime. He had done his time. He had paid his debt to society. He had done his best to make amends and ask forgiveness of the victim and their family. And although he knew he would never get those years back, he also knew he had many years ahead where he could make an impact for God’s Kingdom. However, it soon became apparent to him that life on the outside would not be easy. There were very few jobs to be had for ex-cons. There were very few resources available to him in his community. He didn’t have much family support and the temptation to recidivate was very real. After all, the prison life was something he understood. In fact, he had spent his entire adult life up to this point behind bars. The routine felt comfortable. He ate three meals a day. He had a comfortable bed to sleep in. He had a job to go to each day. Yes, it was a pain to be told what to do and when to do it. Yes, it was dehumanizing to be counted five or six times a day or to have your cell searched without warning. Yes, he wasn’t treated well by the guards and he always had to be careful around the other inmates. But it was a world he had navigated well and even thrived in. He had gotten his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees behind bars. He had become the inmate chaplain. He preached weekly and led Bible studies. He had earned respect. All of that was gone now that he was on the outside.
In our discussion, we talked at length about this passage from Galatians. We talked at length about the difference between a “free” mentality and a “slave” mentality. We talked at length about how comfortable we can become in the prison house of sin, enslaved to the great enemy of our souls. In fact, we can become so comfortable that even after Christ has set us free, we often find ourselves tempted to recidivate to our old ways. It’s what we know. It’s what’s familiar. It’s a world we often navigate well to a certain extent. We may even gain a certain level of respect for ourselves or others based on our success. But all that becomes meaningless once Christ has come into our lives and set us free. He reorders our desires. He reorients our values. He calls us to lay down our lives in order to gain them. He calls us to be last so that we may be first. He calls us to humbly serve and love others, even our enemies. This is what freedom looks like in God’s Kingdom.
My friend made me a promise when we talked that day. He said, “Doug, I promise you I’m never going back.” I’m never going back to prison. Never going back to that lifestyle. Never going back behind bars where every action I take and every decision I make has to be approved by some human authority. I told him how proud I was of him and how I would stand by his side to help him along the way so he would never be alone. And I asked him to do the same for me. The reality is I don’t want to go back either. I don’t want to go back to the prison of the life I led before Christ. I don’t want to go back to a lifestyle of sin. I don’t want to return to a life of slavery where every action I take and every decision I make is beholden to an enemy who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy all God has done in my life to set me free. It is for freedom that Christ has set me free and I refuse to submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Readings for tomorrow: Acts 15-16