Tag: choices
Dispatch from Prison (Ministry): how to inject HOPE
Again, last night I heard from a man about my age whose been locked up for more than 20 years. Plenty of the men I encounter have spent more time behind bars than outside them.
PLEASE, try to imagine that for a moment.
Want the truth? For some, the thought of going back “to the streets” as they call it, fills them with true dread and anxiety. The world outside of prison is full of unknowns and it’s absent of structure (like 3 meals a day, concrete expectations, and consistent scheduling). There are hazards and temptations, and of course, a bleak outlook employment for future employment. They have little or no ways for doing legitimate work. (Would YOU hire a felon?) Some inmates are so fearful of the outside and paralyzed by their prospects that they will purposefully break rules, hurt others, or commit crimes in prison to lengthen their sentence.
Imagine picking to be in prison rather that choosing to start over anew in freedom.
It seems insane, perhaps, until you realize the terrific poignancy:
Captivity is primarily is located in the mind.
This is just as true for non felons. • Too many of us walk around is prisons of our own making. We see closed doors instead of open ones. We let our past tell us a story about ourselves that can continue to enact. We feel trapped or confined with no way to truly free ourselves. We stay oppressed by sin, soul sickness, and slow forms of dying.
We all need healing to find the fruition of Justice.
True justice involves restoration and rehabilitation for re-entry into community and renewed relationships.
Even the Federal Government realizes this. Prisoners need to prepare ahead of time for release and transform their ways of thinking and doing things. New programs have launched that focus on acquiring skills and tools for successful re-entry into communities were a return to crime and old ways becomes less probable. Building more prisons isn’t working. Many of these re-entry programs focus on drawing from a deeper spiritual place and making choices based on the highest of morals to ensure that the best outcomes are the result. They rely on volunteers to help. Amazing that more resources aren’t carved out for something so important, huh? As a volunteer, I’m working multiple times per week teaching and guiding inmates to prepare them for their eventual release.
But God has put something else on my heart.
• I want my brothers behind bars to be missionaries to fellow-inmates. • I want them to be lights in that dark place. • I want them to pray for others and be sources of support and encouragement. • I want them to be vehicles of God’s love and rays of hope for everyone they encounter. Last night, I told them out loud. As I shared my vision with them, the excitement was palpable. They started smiling. They nodded in agreement. Some laughed because they had been thinking the same thing. God has been at work long before I showed up. They want to be a part of what God is doing. They want to be a part of something bigger in the family of God, now, and in the Kingdom of God past, present, and future. It’s a kingdom that was inaugurated fully with Jesus the King more than 2,000 years. It’s a Kingdom that will continue, as is has all over the world, all the way into eternity. Forever and ever, Amen.
In sharing a vision, where others can use their gifts and talents for a greater purpose, we inject meaning and hope. What power that has!
These men are men who are having their hope renewed.
Would you like to help?
Click here to learn more or volunteer. Click here to help me continue this ministry.
Protected: “Holy Indifference”? Oh, Buoy! (Series: Part III)
5 Questions to Ask at your “Crossroads Moments”
I find myself at crossroads…a lot. I’m met with choices, options, and opportunities routinely. Maybe everyone is.
Here are some good questions to ask:
1. Why have I been on the path that I’m on now?
For growth?
For new opportunities?
To “fix something”?
To avoid something?
To learn something?
…it just sorta “happened”…
What else?
(list these)
2. Where am I finding meaning and satisfaction right now?
Is this from something different than I anticipated? Which part is the best fit that I should step into now? What have been the surprises?
3. Is there anything I need to finish before I take a different path?
What might I be tempted to run from, overlook, or avoid instead of deal with? How do I properly conclude this portion of the trip? Have I collected baggage, and if so, what should stay behind? (most of it)
4. What will be some of the challenges this new path will bring?
Since the new path isn’t truly greener, at least not in every way, where will there growing points for me? (places where I’ll be refined) What resistance or obstacles will need to be dealt with? (All whilst knowing that full knowledge of this part is incomplete.)
5. Does this new path lock me into something?
If so, what? And is that beneficial? Are there alternatives once I take this path, if so what? Wiggle room? Where will I need to make sure I fortify my commitment?
Maybe applying these questions to something you’re going through will help you right now. I hope so.
And I could use your help:
When you find yourself at a crossroads, what questions do you ask?
How do you choose the next path?
How do we decide things?
Many of us weigh the decisions we make against the consequences that may happen. For instance, a financially desperate person might say, “I need money, but if I rob a bank, I’ll surely get caught.” A person with a more developed sense of morality may instead reason, “I need money, but that money is not mine to take.” Either way, some kind of assessment of right and wrong takes place, or at the very least pragmatics, which is the determined usefulness, or useful outcome of a particular action (like robbing a bank.)
Pragmatics gets down into the everyday choices, and can be the default setting for our choices. It’s like a common denominator. But really it’s not very good ethics that drives those kinds of decisions. Instead it is only the perceived consequences at the wheel, steering the choice. While it may seem practical to decide something based on whether it will help or hurt, or be useful or not useful, there is a glaring flaw in this method.
What is it? Simply put, we can never truly know the actual consequences of our choices, or their ramifications which lay in the future. What may seem helpful, can hurt many, instead of help. Or, sometimes certain people are helped, while others suffer greatly. History is quite full of these sorts of examples, and we continue to repeat them.
We can abandon a foundation of pragmatics, (the consequential, illogical, ad hoc reasoning method of decision making) by choosing from an altogether better starting point. God. It sounds so simple, but I will not say it is. But, what I refer to is the ultimate ideal, outside ourself–perfection. (Think: Socrates’ model)
The reference of God “himself,” and the nature and Standard of our best choices actually resides in and with God. The best values, the best and most perfect way–that is the way of God. More than that, it is how reality is grounded. God is the ultimate reality. Yes, we won’t measure up. In about two seconds we won’t, to be honest. However, this is not the reason to head for pragmatics, and assume The Good is not possible, a worthy choice, or viable for a standard–or at least the aim, of our own choices. It is the goal of each of us to decide to not choose for ourselves, or for the consequence alone, but for what is the ultimate Good.
Weigh-in with your take, or insights. I realize this particular post is a lofty one. Yes, and idealistic!
ALSO-Please help me spread the word about this website. I would love to have more regular readers. Many thanks to those who’ve read today!