Rushing through an airport to catch a recent flight, I was able to take advantage of a moving walkway that sped up my journey – and then another. I was about five steps onto the second one when I realized it wasn’t moving. It looked just like the one about 30 feet behind me: same metal, moving floor sections, same Plexiglas sides, same thick rubber handrail, but it was standing still. It gave me no aid at all!
I had an odd feeling of being deceived.
I couldn’t help but wonder if that is the feeling that people have when they buy into a program or an idea, only to find out that the supposed benefits were too good to be true. What they put their faith and hope in did not help them in the long run. Looked good. Didn’t work.
There are lots of good programs out there doing good things, especially this time of year. But too often those good things are like broken moving walkways that take us nowhere of eternal significance.
At Prison Fellowship, we’re determined to give inmates and their families the things they need to have a better life now– like simple Christmas gifts and back-to-school supplies for inmates’ kids, or fair sentencing laws and access to rehabilitative programming for inmates doing time. But we can’t stop there. To truly “work,” programs must bring the broken close to the Healer, Jesus Christ. Only He can set prisoners free from sin and self. Only He can make families whole. Only He can give life that’s eternal. That’s why all our ministry behind bars and in the community has the Gospel at the center – and always will.