The Power of a Cookie

I went to prison this past weekend.  Dolph Briscoe Prison in Dilley, Texas.  Barred windows.  High walls.  Barbed wire.  Razor circular wire at the top of the fences for prison security.  Not a pleasant place.

This past weekend, my husband and I served on a KAIROS weekend.  Our volunteer team of men hosted 42 inmates over the course of a weekend.  In addition, a group of us women worked in an old gas station transformed into a kitchen in downtown Dilley.  Preparing meals.  Packing cookies. Praying for inmates.  Enjoying the reports each evening from our team of guys.

The inmates came that weekend with an assortment of emotions...anger, hatred, apathy, loneliness, depression, and without hope.  They learned about the gift of forgiveness.  They saw God's love demonstrated in countless tangible ways. As the weekend went on, the prison was transformed with laughter, hugs, dancing, singing, praying, honest conversations and visible hope.  Can you imagine over 100 men (volunteers and inmates) linking arms, singing to the top of their lungs "Lean on Me?" In one little weekend, that cold, dark prison gym was turned into a place of hope.  Hope in God and love for one another.

Some of the inmates desire to be a part of the weekend for one thing- cookies.  We bring in thousands of cookies during our KAIROS weekend.  Yummy chocolate chip cookies.  These guys never get cookies.  We pack them in bags of 9.  Each day they get a bag.  Can you imagine what it feels like to receive a bag of fresh cookies?  These guys feel loved.  Love through a bag of cookies.  The cookies also become a tool of restoring relationships.  One night, the inmates are given a second bag of cookies and told to share the bag with someone they've wronged and ask forgiveness.  Finally, the cookies are dispensed to all 1300 inmates, including maximum security inmates.  As our guys left the prison one night, they passed a group of inmates playing soccer.  The inmates yelled out "Cookies! Cookies!  Thanks for the cookies!  The power of a cookie.

If you're reading this, you're probably not prison.  You are not confined to a cell.  You have a life and are free.  But sometimes, you may still live like you're in prison.  Confined.  Angry.  Hurt.  Not forgiving those you need to forgive.  Not making wrongs right.  Messed up relationships. Today is a new start.  Start up!  Realize God's love for you  Then, go and love others.  You don't even need a bag of cookies.  Just affirm them.  Notice them.  Care about them.  And if need be, forgive them.  Never forget, there are a lot of prisoners walking around in the free world.  God comes to set the prisoners free.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."  2 Corinthians 3:17

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain for the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.