Prisoners? Love them!

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”
― Nelson Mandela


     Throughout the Bible we read about prison.  Whether we want to admit it or not we have all spent time in our own prisons where the walls can be built from, pain, addiction or bitterness to name a few of the building materials we use.  At any time, we can find freedom from our prisons through healing and forgiveness.  There are prisoners who will never feel freedom, unless God steps in.
     The enemy often times tries to use our own gifts against us.  I can't help but think of Joseph and his coat of many colors.  This was a gift from his father.  Did he handle it correctly or show it off?  Did he appreciate the love he received with the gift or immaturely focus on the pride of being his father's favorite?  I find it interesting that his brothers chose that coat to convince his father he was dead.  They covered it in blood and led him to believe Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.  Years later in the palace he was thrown in prison over a coat left behind at a fabricated, attempted rape scene. 
     The enemy tries to turn things around on us.  For instance a person with a gift to speak has to go through "mouth training" and often times it is his mouth used against him by the enemy.  How many gifted, very intelligent people are sitting in prison, sometimes because of their gifts.  I'm thinking of white collar crime.  Sometimes creative and intelligent people are tempted into committing crimes which keep them from using their gifts in the world, but God can turn it around.  How many times through the bible have we heard of the awesome situations that happen while God's people sat in prison?  Jesus was even crucified between two criminals.  Joseph was released from prison because a fellow prisoner did not forget him. 
     It's easy to focus on our mistakes and see how the enemy has turned the good things in our lives against us, but we can't forget that more often God turns the bad things the enemy does in our lives for our benefit.  More importantly to Glorify Him.  Love is the tool most often used to free us from our self made or maintained walls. 
     I watched a documentary recently that touched me to such a degree, I had to purchase it to share.  The Angola Prison in Louisiana has developed a Hospice for dying prisoners.  The hospice workers are all volunteers, not from the free world, but from within the prison.  Prisoners caring for prisoners.  The love that develops and heals is amazing.  The people who are changed are the volunteers.  They are changed because they decide to love.  There are murderers changing the diapers of drug dealers and changing their own lives by doing it.  It was one of the most touching films I have ever watched and I grew to love the volunteers as well as the men they were caring for.  One of the most touching scenes involved two brother.  The youngest had followed in his big brother's footsteps and they were both sentenced to life in Angola.  The youngest was dying in the hospice unit.  There was a moment when the warden brought the older brother in to see his dying brother and they prayed together with two of the volunteers.  It messed me up. Love is powerful and I can guarantee the enemy is not happy with these locked up people loving each other.  If you get a chance watch it.  You will be moved.  Nobody is too far gone to be loved and set free by it.