Just Do Something
Guy Number 1…
As I spoke with the man from prison he began to open up. He told of long nights at first. Long nights were away from his family. Long nights were away from his world that he was used to. Then it all became a norm… it blurred and a new norm became a reality. A schedule that was unending and so regimented that it covered the pain of not ever seeing your family again. Then one year stretched into two and two became five and then even more. This man’s life was wasted one day at a time until he came out just a little less than twenty years.
Hope vanished with the years.
When they told him he was to be released there was a new adjustment. There was an outside world that had changed radically. Nothing was the same as it was before. New ideas, new inventions and new problems had evolved in his absence. He was now a dinosaur waking up in an unbelievable world.
That was a long time ago. Today he is coping with the new realities. He cannot work. His health was broken inside of prison. Some of that breaking had come at the hands of younger men who physically beat him up, hoping to have killed him. Even if he could work – no one would hire him because of his record.
Guy Number 2…
He is young and a survivor. His crime was horrible and it destroyed many lives around him. He is out and doing well enough. Good health and a record mixed with a survival attitude. A few days ago he had a job interview. He has told the potential employer that he has a record and spent time in jail.
Marriage is a possibility for this guy too. It is real love and a family comes with that real love too.
Guy Number 3…
He is out of jail now too. He is not forgiving those that hurt him by placing him in jail. He is bitter and angry. His victims – and there is always victims with every crime – live with their memories.
He has plans for a law suit after he is clear of his major obstacles of clearing his name.
You see, he is right and everyone else is wrong. He bristles in each interaction with humanity. He is not well adjusted to the new outside world. His crusade will take him places he knows that.
For my part I wait and watch. I will be there if he needs help. But of the three that I have illustrated above – he is the least likely to succeed.
The Parole Board…
After years of watching and waiting, the Parole Board has seen them all. They make tenuous decisions that they go home to sleep with. The decisions wake them at nights and make them shudder from their soul outwards. A re-offence will break their hearts – they know there are others that have been hurt. The Parole Board personnel are very human…but no one knows that…and few care.
I needed to write/share this today for some of you that read this blog yesterday. I called it hard and straight. I needed to write it for the guys from prison that read it with you. They need their stories told and some one to say – “We are not all the same.”
Taking a deep breath…
Yesterday our world was buried in a powerful snow storm again. People lost their lives in the commute through this storm. Families lost loved ones, property was damaged and insurance rates skyrocketed. It was a bad one for everyone that had to drive. My wife, my mom, and two ex-offenders rode it out with me as I drove through the storm. It was wild.
This morning we woke to a new reality. The air is clean and clear – not a cloud to be seen anywhere in the sky. There is even a promise of spring with small birds calling to each other on the tree top line. You would never know there had been a storm. The sun is shining as bright as it ever had. It is a new day.
What can you do?
If you are a person of prayer…then pray for guys coming out of prison…then pray for the Parole Board folk that need support…
If you are not – think of them…it might change a perspective you have now…
Then if opportunity comes your way – just be there to help encourage them men coming out. Just being a friend will open new doors and a new life for each of them.
As we help the ex-offenders we have never forgotten their offences or their victims. We work so there will be no more victims.
What can you do? Just do something – that will help. I just know it!!!
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
As I spoke with the man from prison he began to open up. He told of long nights at first. Long nights were away from his family. Long nights were away from his world that he was used to. Then it all became a norm… it blurred and a new norm became a reality. A schedule that was unending and so regimented that it covered the pain of not ever seeing your family again. Then one year stretched into two and two became five and then even more. This man’s life was wasted one day at a time until he came out just a little less than twenty years.
Hope vanished with the years.
When they told him he was to be released there was a new adjustment. There was an outside world that had changed radically. Nothing was the same as it was before. New ideas, new inventions and new problems had evolved in his absence. He was now a dinosaur waking up in an unbelievable world.
That was a long time ago. Today he is coping with the new realities. He cannot work. His health was broken inside of prison. Some of that breaking had come at the hands of younger men who physically beat him up, hoping to have killed him. Even if he could work – no one would hire him because of his record.
Guy Number 2…
He is young and a survivor. His crime was horrible and it destroyed many lives around him. He is out and doing well enough. Good health and a record mixed with a survival attitude. A few days ago he had a job interview. He has told the potential employer that he has a record and spent time in jail.
Marriage is a possibility for this guy too. It is real love and a family comes with that real love too.
Guy Number 3…
He is out of jail now too. He is not forgiving those that hurt him by placing him in jail. He is bitter and angry. His victims – and there is always victims with every crime – live with their memories.
He has plans for a law suit after he is clear of his major obstacles of clearing his name.
You see, he is right and everyone else is wrong. He bristles in each interaction with humanity. He is not well adjusted to the new outside world. His crusade will take him places he knows that.
For my part I wait and watch. I will be there if he needs help. But of the three that I have illustrated above – he is the least likely to succeed.
The Parole Board…
After years of watching and waiting, the Parole Board has seen them all. They make tenuous decisions that they go home to sleep with. The decisions wake them at nights and make them shudder from their soul outwards. A re-offence will break their hearts – they know there are others that have been hurt. The Parole Board personnel are very human…but no one knows that…and few care.
I needed to write/share this today for some of you that read this blog yesterday. I called it hard and straight. I needed to write it for the guys from prison that read it with you. They need their stories told and some one to say – “We are not all the same.”
Taking a deep breath…
Yesterday our world was buried in a powerful snow storm again. People lost their lives in the commute through this storm. Families lost loved ones, property was damaged and insurance rates skyrocketed. It was a bad one for everyone that had to drive. My wife, my mom, and two ex-offenders rode it out with me as I drove through the storm. It was wild.
This morning we woke to a new reality. The air is clean and clear – not a cloud to be seen anywhere in the sky. There is even a promise of spring with small birds calling to each other on the tree top line. You would never know there had been a storm. The sun is shining as bright as it ever had. It is a new day.
What can you do?
If you are a person of prayer…then pray for guys coming out of prison…then pray for the Parole Board folk that need support…
If you are not – think of them…it might change a perspective you have now…
Then if opportunity comes your way – just be there to help encourage them men coming out. Just being a friend will open new doors and a new life for each of them.
As we help the ex-offenders we have never forgotten their offences or their victims. We work so there will be no more victims.
What can you do? Just do something – that will help. I just know it!!!
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Saturday, March 01, 2008
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