S T O N E S
What Stone Will You Let Jesus Roll Away Today?
May 17th, 2023
INCARCERATION: Chain Breaker
Luke 24:2, ‘But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.’ (NKJV)
“I love the imagery of the stone that covered Jesus’ tomb rolling away when He defeated death. The reality is, we all have stones in our lives…but the good news is: Jesus Christ rolls stones away!” (Christine Caine)
I remember the first time I went into prison with my parents to help them with a Bible study, how greatly impacted I was. Truth is, I really didn’t want to go. I agreed to go help mainly to pacify their requests. I had no other excuse; all the previous excuses I had been using had run out. I was available and able to go help. It also is true that I had spent many years fighting feelings of jealousy and insignificance because my parents were so passionate about their prison ministry. I once thought maybe if I ever landed in prison, my parents might feel more compassion toward me, spend more effort caring about the hurts that unraveled me. Maybe I could receive as much love and grace from them as they had to dole out to the prisoners they went to see and minister to regularly. I was envious that men in prison had a deeper relationship and common understanding and knew my parents better than I did. That was only the beginning, that first time.
When we left the prison that first evening, I was unprepared for the feelings I would find myself assaulted by. I was train wrecked. I was exiting freely through the bars, out of the gates of a prison, that imprisoned men who were freer within their own spirits than I was in my head as I walked out. Those men had more abandon and immunity than I had known for a very long time in my own soul, so in bondage and enslaved was I to my worldliness and my choices. Suddenly, I wanted what they had!
That was years ago now. I work in the prisons today. We also help people transition from their incarceration to the world outside when they are released on parole. Our desire is to help men and women find success in their new life outside the walls of prison and find opportunity to give back, to make healthier and better choices, to live. With care and concern, mentorship and resources, many are rescripting their lives and stepping into bright futures, untethered any longer by previous choices and addictions and bad habits. They served their time and did their best to pay back what they stole, and it is truly a gift to be a part of their second, and sometimes, fifth chance.
He has a face covered in tattoos. Not too many bare spots. When we first met him, my husband remarked that he didn’t know whether to talk to him or read him. His face tells a wounded story. He has been in and out of prison almost his entire life. I sat with him his second day out. He looked at me with wonder and admitted that every other time he had been released, within twenty-four hours, he had a needle in his arm again and had already robbed someone for that fix. I asked him what would be different this time. Simply, he pointed to his heart.
Since then, he has struggled to find work. Most employers say he ‘freaks’ them out. He has the most beautiful smile. We remind him to smile a lot. So he began volunteering his time. It wasn’t long before people began looking past the face they encountered and saw his heart instead. He now is helping others from his vantage point of learned experience to make different choices and to choose life rather than death. Even our scars and mistakes can tell a story of redemption and grace and new life and second chances. In His hands, anything is possible, and by His hands, even the biggest boulders can be rolled away for good.
Proverbs 7:3, ‘And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh.’ (ESV)
“IT IS FINISHED!”
