Every once in a while we'll read a report in the paper, or see a clip on the news, about the prison population across the country. It never seems to decrease. In fact, it seems that it is always increasing. Those in prison are there because they have gone through the court process because of a crime they committed, were found guilty, and were sentenced to a term in prison. Alcatraz was a well known prison of yesteryear, just as Leavenworth is today a well known prison.
There are many, all around us, every day, who are also in prison. Those prisons carry names also. Some of the names of those prisons are:
- hopelessness
- despair
- pain
- addiction
- emotional upheaval
- relational upheaval
- spiritual upheaval
The bars on those prisons often feel just as real as the bars of Alcatraz. The ability to escape those prisons are no less real to the folks in them than those who are in Leavenworth. At Leavenworth, the key to getting out is in the hands of the guards. But who holds the keys to release those about us who are incarcerated in their own prisons? We all do. Oftentimes it is because of the time we take, the small things we may say, the stories we share, the love we show, the empathy we have, and our willingness to care that those folks start to see a way out of their own prison.
How open are you to sharing your testimony?
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