Let's eat!

It is early afternoon on a beautiful, cool, Fall day and am just in from an amazing Bible study.  That is important to know but the precursor of importance to my blog today must go back to last night after being part of two county jail chapel services.  

In the two services we had over fifty men of varying ages, races, ethnicity, crimes, family situations; yes, a metaphor for life on this journey I have come to realize. For almost thirteen years I have been more and more heavily involved in prison ministry now numbering nearly 300,000 men and women. With each church service I find myself feeling blessed, warmed at the fire, seeking ways to be more effective but still with the question: what is it that keeps that ministry work vital, always a blessing and grasping bigger bites of involvement each year to me. I am a man of passion as many of you know and if I get impassioned about cause, my drive triggers to accomplish more and more. But the prison work still maintains a deeply rooted question as to why this ministry is so important to me.

Most people I know would never understand the blessing that comes from this work.  Getting to do this work with an array of preachers, speakers, volunteers that are there just to be there and to encourage; I find myself blessed by the equation God fulfills in bringing such an eclectic band of brothers and sisters all pointed at bringing the matter of Salvation to the surface in these men and women society would generally like to just assume do not exist which extends to their families as well. 

The services last evening were unique in the sense of connectivity established and the level of respect, intensity of listening, the spirit of the Lord being shown in raised hands, clapping, praising God intently; WOW!  In this Bible study this morning we drilled into the story of Jesus and Levi (Matthew the tax collector) and the answer to the burning question for me and the why of the prison work came bursting to the light of day.  Jesus intentionally put Himself in places and with people "normal" people did not and would not associate with.  

Read these verses from Mark: 

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners

13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" ...  Insert prisoners for the "sick" and voila, that is exactly the why!  In the hundreds of services I have conducted and been part of and the innumerable songs I have sung and the many times I have had to get rather "stringent" to quiet and stop anything as to behaviors that would interrupt the work church service, I have never felt fearful nor threatened.  The relationships developed with the corrections officers and deputies is part of the blessing for I get to minister to them as well and realize my personal behavior and demeanor given that environment is satisfying to those men and women in uniform doing potentially dangerous and ever changing events inside the bars.

Verse seventeen shown above, for me, was like watching a shooting star as so many questions I have had were answered. Jesus I certainly am not. But this work has created an inexplicable empathy for these men and women that have made many terrible choices and they are paying the consequence. 

Never have I excused the act that put them into the prison for it is all part of the process they chose to embark upon.  I have yet to have a prisoner tell me they were in prison for no reason and believe me, I have had thousands of conversations hearing stories that most would think were from a television program. Broken homes, drug addiction, alcoholism, violence, hate, anger, discouragement, suicide, murder; that is my world in which I feel this amazing sense of joy and worth. It still simply takes my breath away even when tired, frustrated and discouraged.

A bonus to all of this is in getting to work with some amazing volunteers and pastors that take time from their busy lives to invest in these downtrodden and many times forgotten men and women.  I learn from each sermon, each testimony, each quiet private conversation with an inmate. I am blessed!

To close, each of us if we are like most Christians, have many friends that are Christians. It feels right and good and warm to be with other Christians. But here is the challenge for Christians I realize more strongly than ever before: how many non-Christians do you know and choose to associate with? Think about that for a moment! 

My answer is in the thousands of non-Christians I am with each year and realize more clearly with each passing year that God has opened this door to me for exactly what the verse 17 says and the example Jesus gave us all.  He did not linger or warm up to those that are on easy street and going well. No, He went to the tired, the poor, the dead so why on earth should we not follow that example?

So, how many non-Christians do you choose to be an example to in your words and deeds and actions?  Please, ponder that. I am re-energized in these last twelve hours as I guess and hope you can tell!