Behind the Razor Wire

   One of the major themes of any Kairos weekend is that of personal responsibility. All of us, the team included, have to face up to the fact that they are responsible for their own choices. That was the first point in the choices talk that I gave on Friday morning. We are all in the position we occupy in the present because of the choices we have made in the past. Even some of the guys who protest their innocence of the felony they have been sentenced for, will admit to the fact that they should not have been in the vicinity of the illegal act in the first place. Some admit to committing other crimes and not getting caught for those, even while saying they were wrongly convicted for the one that landed them at Ware.

   A major black cloud that hangs over a lot of the men in prison, whether they are Christian or not, is that of unforgiveness. At the time of the felony it could be the officer, the prosecutor, their defense attorney, the judge or some false witness. While they are locked up it could be the officers, bully inmates, their cell mate, the ones that steal from them, or it could be their family. One of the saddest tales an inmate may share is the fact that his family has not visited or written in several years, and has, in fact, written him off. Wives can divorce them, marry another, and not let the children visit or write.

   Of course, I know that the ones that we see most often in Kairos are those that want to change, that want to find a better way or that have started walking on that new path. They hurt for the things they have done, but they also hurt because their loved ones are unable to give them a second, or third or fourth chance. They have disappointed the people closest to them, embarrassing everyone with what they have done, and, for some relatives and friends, it is the last straw.

   The inmates can hold unforgiveness in their hearts for a long time. It can become a highly polished stone in their wall self protection, or a ball and chain, dragging them down. Most of all it keeps them in bondage, kept from the freedom that Christ gives the believer. Probably, a lot of the time, the person who has been the object of this attitude does not even know it, and may have long since forgotten the person and the situation. The only person hurt by this is the inmate himself.

   So, the forgiveness ceremony is one of the more powerful ones that the inmates participate in. They are encouraged to write down the names of the people they need to forgive, and want to at least start that process. They use rice paper and then at the appropriate time, place these papers, with these names on them, into a solution that dissolves the paper and the names vanish. It is only a symbol, and for some it is only a beginning of ridding their minds and hearts of these things that they hold against another, but it is a start, and just the simple act of wanting to begin the process, is a freeing moment.

   The Bible says that God has forgiven our sins when we ask believing, and He remembers them no more. It is hard for us to forgive and forget, but at least we can make the conscious decision to forgive and ask God to help us in the process of forgetting.

   I have seen men in prison begin to smile again, when that load of unforgiveness is lifted from them, and they are enabled to live a more fruitful and productive life

   Could there be a lesson in there for people on the outside of that razor wire also?