As I looked toward the prison yard, it was unusually quiet and surreal on this hot and humid day. The only folks in the yard were our group of some thirty volunteers lined up in single file. Five people through the sally port at a time. Then the large iron door would clang shut loudly after each group of five. Led by the guard, we'd walk single file until we came to another iron door. There, we would stop and wait for the rest of the group.
There's something about entering a prison that makes me a bit melancholy. It's just a sobering experience. I silently wondered what it must be like to live day in and day out in this place. I can't imagine how awful. As I stood there waiting in line, I was taken back by the dead silence. Then, all at once, in the midst of this dark, dreary afternoon, I head this song blast out of the gym across the yard…..
There's something about entering a prison that makes me a bit melancholy. It's just a sobering experience. I silently wondered what it must be like to live day in and day out in this place. I can't imagine how awful. As I stood there waiting in line, I was taken back by the dead silence. Then, all at once, in the midst of this dark, dreary afternoon, I head this song blast out of the gym across the yard…..
Let love explode and bring the dead to life… a love so bold to seek a revolution somehow.
Now I'm lost in Your freedom in this world I'll overcome. My God's not dead, he's surely alive! He's living on the inside, roaring like a lion….Roaring, he's roaring like a lion.
Let hope arise and make the darkness hide….My faith is dead, I need resurrection somehow now I'm lost in Your freedom….In this world I'll overcome!!!....
All at once, my sadness turned to happy tears. As I looked out over this dark and dreary prison, I was quickly reminded that not everything going on here is dismal. As we entered the gym, there was the inmate's band leading a group of fellow inmates singing "God's Not Dead" by Newsboys. The afternoon only got better as we enjoyed one story after another of all God did in the lives of these inmates over the weekend. Many experienced a new found relationship with God. Forgiveness. Agape love. Hope. Freedom. Joy. A new life, even if in prison.
So, when was the last time you thought you had a very bad, hard day? When things didn't go your way? Disappointed about a situation at work? When you felt like you were in your own personal prison? Hearing "God's Not Dead" boom out of the gym on that gloomy, dreary day, reminded me that joy IS possible, even in the most difficult of circumstances. I can choose joy. I can choose to worship God when things aren't perfect in my life. I can rise above the storms of life with God at my side. I can even be grateful for stinky circumstances, because sometimes those stinky circumstances are used to change my life…for the better.
"The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17
"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior." Habakkuk 3:17-18
Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain for the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.
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