Over the past year, we have had the privilege of getting to know a fellow who had spent 27 nonconsecutive years of his life in the state prison.  I (John) first met him during a dominos game outside of a boarding house.  He had just been paroled from his last sentence and was basically homeless and trying to find his way.  As I got to know this new friend better, I came to discover that he was a quite smart cookie.  He spent a lot of time in the prison library studying the law books in order to reduce his sentence or do legal work for other prisoners.  He was able to chop  several years off one of his prison terms.  In the process, the case went all the way to the state supreme court and became a landmark “search and seizure” decision.

One day, this friend and I were sitting on the porch and talking.  He was obviously struggling.  He knew all about the prison.  He was an expert at prison, but out here it is different.  The rules are different.  There is no structure forced upon you.  Although he was great at job rehabilitation programs and great at finding jobs, he couldn’t keep them.  He was getting back into drugs.  He was scared.  I told him the story of Jesus.  I told him that everything is new because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I told him that he didn’t need to get his act together to accept Jesus, but Jesus accepts him just as he is.  He came over that same night, and handed Katheryn a small stack of papers, "give this to John.  If he can read this and still tell me what he told me earlier today, I need to talk with him."  It was his criminal record.  He simply did not believe that Christ would want anything to do with someone with that stack of papers.  Several days later, I handed the papers back and said, “these are yours.”  My friend replied, “no.  It’s theirs.  Thanks to God, it’s not me anymore.”