PRISON FELLOWSHIP: Ron Nikkel

Ten years ago on a cold dark night, Someone was killed ‘neath the town hall light. There were few at the scene, but they all agreed, That the slayer who ran, looked a lot like me.

– Johnny Cash, “Long Black Veil”

For many people the experience of betrayal feels like “the kiss of death.” 

Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place.

– Hebrews 13:3 (CEB)

Prison is a growth industry proclaimed a recent article in Financialtimes.com.  “Brazil’s economy might not be growing as fast as it used to, but investors will be given the chance to buy into what remains a true growth industry in Latin America’s largest country – prisons.”  

You can’t get forgiveness from God… without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.1

“Can he ever be forgiven?  Can he find redemption?” – asked the interviewer.

“Those are the questions,” replied a psychologist, and then mused aloud, “but who really deserves forgiveness?”

 Injustice is everywhere; justice seems far away. Truth is chased out of court; honesty is shoved aside. Everyone tells lies; those who turn from crime end up ruined.1

The following post originally appeared on the Prison Fellowship International website on January 3, 2011.

Several of my neighbors began the new year suffering from the ill effects of their year-end revelry.  What must have seemed like a lot of fun as the old year drew to a close, morphed into nauseous aching pain as the new year dawned. 

Dear friends, Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

A quotation often attributed to Blaise Pascal came to mind this past week – “there is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.”1

I had been reading a newspaper article about a provocative new book that examines the relationship between a person’s image of God and their attitudes to economics, justice, social morality, politics, love and life in general.2 “It is the shape of God,” I said to myself “and how that affects my interaction with the world – my worldview.”

A beautiful Fuji apple, my favourite variety, had been on my desk all day and I was anticipating the sweet succulent taste of that apple. When finally the moment came, I picked it up and took one huge bite — of disappointment.