Learning Life the Hard Way

Jimmy always asked for a few minutes of Susan's time after the Juvy Center services. This was his fifth time back at the center and she had always visited with him. He loved to talk about the latest horrible happenings at his overcrowded, under parented house. Sometimes, Susan spent ten minutes with him, sometimes fifteen. Never enough, it seemed, even though they never talked about anything significant.

Finally, Jimmy explained his constant requests. "My mom doesn't love me. She says I"m so stupid, and no son of hers. I don't know why she doesn't love me, but," and he shrugged his shoulders and smiled, "she just doesn't -- that's why she doesn't come visit me or accept my calls or help me with school." Susan was inwardly appalled at the schooled indifference with which Jimmy uttered these words. "She didn't care when I left home and stayed at Walden Apartments. She just doesn't want to see me." Jimmy showed no emotion--none. At what personal cost did he manage to appear so unconcerned? His façade cracked only when he talked about going to juvenile prison without any parental support. He is small for his age and was very much afraid of being beaten or raped there.

"If it weren't for you," he said slowly, " well, I don't know what I would do!" Suddenly, Susan's ten minute visit seemed so important. Even when they talked about "dumb stuff" she knew it wasn't about the words. It was about the time and the caring.

Jimmy has no one to teach him about love and faithfulness. No one encourages him to do what is right in the eyes of the law, let alone God. No one applauds his efforts not to do drugs. No one. Jimmy sure has a hard road to go.

God tells us in his word that He will be a father to the fatherless. Is that where Larry and Susan come in? Are they His voices, His loving kindness, and His instructors to the Jimmy's of Medina County???

Tiffany was a fifteen year old pixie. She had long hair that curled gently at her shoulders. Her round eyes sparkled with mischief and snapped with cynicism way beyond her years. When Susan talked about how wonderful life would be in a culture where people obeyed God's commands for living, she couldn't wait to put in her opinion.

"Life is just not like that! People lie and have affairs all the time! You can't trust anybody." Tiffany instructed Susan.

Susan replied, "I've been married for thirty years and I've been faithful to my husband and he’s been faithful to me. It can be the way it is supposed to be."

Tiffany was quick to reply, "How do you know? How do you know he was faithful? My mom slept around on my dad. Everybody does. What's the big deal?"

How sad that at fifteen Tiffany has lost her idealism and dreams of happy-ever-after. She doesn't have anything to shoot for in life, because someone took away the target!

Susan happened to meet Tiffany's mom in the parking lot at the juvy center. The mom was thinking to move Tiffany out of terrible Medina County, where the kids are so bad. Surprise! No matter how far they move, Tiffany will have her mom to watch, her mom to model herself after, and her own broken conscience to pave the way for more trouble and pain. Tiffany's got a long hard road ahead of her.

When parents default on their responsibilities to their children, who will teach them faithfulness and love? When the schools can't or won't even mention Jesus in public, who will preserve our Judeo-Christian cultural heritage? When society continually models destructive lifestyles, who is left to teach the values of hard work, perseverance, and responsibility that made this country great? When powerful media groups bash the church, exalt dishonesty and deceit, and continually pump alternative lifestyles, where can a young person go to get any straight answers?

How tragic that some people have to go to jail or prison to find answers! Amazingly, people attend church in jail who would never dream of going on the outside. Some teens have even told Susan that the thing they can most thank God for during their incarceration is that they get to attend church. Bibles are free to whomever asks, and people even try reading them. Christian seminars abound. People pray unashamedly and often. A hunger and thirst to know God wells up from the cellblocks. Truth peeks through the lonely cell bars and people are faced with their own sinfulness! When the glamour and glitz of our world has been stripped away--lonely, frightened people have a chance to think about things that really matter.

In Corinthians, Paul writes that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. We don't believe he meant for the prisons of America to have to pick up the pieces of our broken culture - however, God can certainly use any means to make Himself known to the nations. Prison stories are featured prominently in the Bible, and Paul even writes some of his epistles from there. In America, jails and prisons still respect the God of the Bible and allow chaplains and Bible studies and concerts and counseling to occur. Isn't that strange? The long hard road of life sometimes comes to a supposed "dead-end" at the local county jail...only to have God break through for a rescue.

Against all odds, prison seems to be a place where God meets people face to face--even as tears roll down cheeks and prayers echo off the concrete block cell walls.

Yes!

Correctional facilities seem to have an interesting recipe for God-seekers.

Mix equal portions of loneliness and loss of control with a healthy dose o f regret and repentance.

Blend in Bibles to a mixture of interesting Bible studies available per week.

Fold in chaplains that will visit personally to talk about God and answer questions--chaplains who smile and listen and don't judge--chaplains who passionately proclaim God's love

Stir in the fervent prayers of supportive churches and believers who care.

Sprinkle with Christian novels and self-help books sitting on the cellblock shelves, available at any time to read.

Allow the Holy Spirit to work on God-seeking individuals while they are locked up, "free" to think about Jesus and read the Bible for perhaps the first time in their lives.

Allow to simmer until the person is ready to "bow the knee".