“It seems like all the happy people are the ones inside the prison,” observed a member of our board on a recent trip to Michigan correctional facilities, where we attended seminary-level classes with inmate students and later shared a meal in their cafeteria.
This co-laborer in our ministry wasn’t making light of the hardships of incarceration, but he was noticing a remarkable trend. When men and women have the Holy Spirit at work within them, filling them with joy and peace like they’ve never known, their outward circumstances no longer determine their attitudes.
Another prisoner, whose drug addiction landed him in prison, recently wrote to Prison Fellowship in a similar vein, saying, “One day I read a daily reading someone gave me. … I realized He saved me from something and it put me at a standstill. I’m grateful and thankful for some unknown reason. … I’m just happy and I don’t know why.”
To know Christ is to have a freedom and a happiness that nothing in the world can take away. Every day, men and women behind bars are turning from their old lives and running into the arms of their Heavenly Father, who makes them new from the inside out.
I’d like to challenge you to be part of this “inside job,” introducing prisoners to a love and hope that will take root in their hearts and transform their relationships, their prisons, and the communities to which they will return one day. Whether you give your time, your prayers, or your resources, everyone who follows Jesus has a part to play in remembering prisoners and their families. Learn more today at www.prisonfellowship.org.