{"id":6813,"date":"2012-09-22T05:14:27","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T05:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/wp3\/?p=6813"},"modified":"2017-01-23T23:56:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T23:56:18","slug":"prisoner-set-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/wp3\/admit\/prisoner-set-free","title":{"rendered":"Heaven, Hell, Three-foot Forks, and My Problem with Hank"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Steven Gledhill<\/strong><\/em><\/span> for FREEdom from MEdom Project<\/span><\/h5>\n

See that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but at all times make it your aim to do good to one another and to all people. Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18 (Good News Translation)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What happens when you let a wild animal out of its cage after locking it up for some time? It likely is that the animal still untamed will go wild on everything in sight once set free. When considering the context of the twelve-step model, the men who behave like they are untamed and out of control, might admit that they are powerless against their drug use and criminal lifestyle. They might even suggest that their reckless lifestyle is a power greater than themselves rendering their lives unmanageable. When that is the case, incarceration turns out to be the power greater than themselves and their preoccupation with drugs and crime that restores their lives to manageability. Outside of understanding to this point is that if one needs prison to be restored to manageability, it is still an insane way to manage one’s life.<\/p>\n

The key for people in prison is to do the work of recovery while in the cage so that they can begin to experience a sense of freedom while locked up. Coming into, or back into, relationship with God is pivotal to a restored stable life. If they do, when they are let out of the cage they exhibit temperance since they have been set free in their spirit.<\/p>\n

There are men at the prison I work at who return to a healthy relationship with God while serving their time for crimes committed against people like you. They are guilty. They are ashamed of their behavior whether or not they were charged for it. The men in recovery returning to God in prison are neck deep in shame for what they have done and initially can have difficulty reconciling with God and accepting forgiveness. They realize they will have to live with the fact that the victims of their crimes are also loved by God and there will not be opportunity to reconcile with them (at least not in this life). The result can be unresolved shame that can continue to define and weaken the man hoping to get right with God in recovery. Essential to freedom from shame is for the man in prison to see himself the way God sees him, like the father who reconciled himself to his prodigal son, wearing the robe that is God’s Son, Jesus; the robe of righteousness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:20 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n

I have heard these men in recovery from addiction, freed from their captivity, bound by their drugs of choice, memories of a shameful devastating past riddled with guilt, engulfed into a tragic life, proclaiming, “I’ve got my life back”, and “I am happier than I’ve ever been in my life”. Without exception, these men have experienced healing and deliverance into recovery empowered by God in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus actually shows up through the cloud of jaded expectations and touches their lives. It is my privilege to get to know these guys and play a role in their recovery into a new life experience.<\/p>\n

However, I have a problem. His name is Hank, or at least that is what I will call him. Hank, an African-American in his late 40s, is a client (inmate) at the correctional center that I counsel at. Every morning that I come in to work I am greeted by Hank. He says to me enthusiastically, \u201cGood morning Mr. Steve, how are you today?\u201d I respond, \u201cGood Hank, how are you?\u201d His response to me on the prison block is, \u201cI\u2019m great!\u201d This has been Hank\u2019s response to me every day but one since I have known him. The one day is when Hank responded, “I’m alright”. It was an especially difficult day that day. And that is all I can say about it. Otherwise, Hank is at a high and lofty place that, even as a brother to him in Christ, I struggle to relate with. It’s a problem for me.<\/p>\n

My problem is that Hank is absolutely genuine through and through. Hank loves his Redeemer. He expresses his love through the extension of God’s generous love wherever and whenever he can. He makes it a point to bless me every day I come in to work. While my challenge working in the prison setting is substantial, the rewards are eternal and touch me deeply. When I get around Hank, while I am blessed and encouraged, I am challenged in my spirit – in my attitude concerning my giving of my time and resources as an expression of gratitude for God’s gift of mercy in my life. Why don’t I seem to appreciate and love my Savior Jesus Christ the way Hank does?<\/p>\n

You see, Hank is a recovering heroin addict that committed crimes again and again throughout his adult life to support his drug addiction at the expense of everyone he loves and that love him. He is sober in prison and has returned to a loving merciful gracious relationship with Jesus Christ. I am not his primary counselor so I don\u2019t know his entire story. There were times when Hank did not realize his need for relationship with Jesus; times when if approached by Jesus the conversation might have gone something like this:<\/p>\n

Jesus: “Hank, if you put your trust in me, I will change you and set you free from what imprisons you, and you will indeed be set free by this truth I give you.”<\/p>\n

Hank: “Set free… set free from what? When was I ever imprisoned?<\/p>\n

The man is IN<\/em> prison! He has been imprisoned by drug addiction long before he spent even a second in jail.<\/p>\n

So Jesus would have to tell him matter-of-factly, “Hank, you’ve been in prison for years… imprisoned by addiction to drugs and alcohol… imprisoned by life in the streets… imprisoned by expectations… imprisoned by the lies you’ve been conned into believing… imprisoned by your addiction to your selfishness. Anyone who has given themselves over to selfish sin is in prison. You are imprisoned by the streets. They are not your family. They have sold you into slavery to addiction in all of its forms. When you leave all that and turn to having relationship with me, I most certainly assure you that you will know, by experience, freedom into a real loving family like you have never known before.”<\/p>\n

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.\u201d \u201cBut we are descendants of Abraham,\u201d they said. \u201cWe have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, \u2018You will be set free\u2019?\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cI tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. John 8:32-34 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n

Hank has been in and out of relationship with Jesus before. What I mean by “out” is that in his addiction and crime, Hank will ignore who and what he is in relationship with Christ. For all I know, this is what has happened before; perhaps several times. Hank gets locked up, gets clean and sober, does so with the empowering support of his Lord and Savior, does his time, gets out and returns home, does alright for awhile going to meetings, is in loving relationships with his family and friends, and then\u2026 one thing leads to another, and Hank is overwhelmed by the temptations that trigger relapse, he lapses from his recovery routines, and relapses deep into his addiction. Deep into his addiction, his relationship with God suffers, he suffers, his loved ones suffer, and then society suffers when he \u201chas\u201d to commit crimes to accumulate enough resources to finance his hell into the bondage of heroin addiction.<\/p>\n

In his addiction, Hank is in a kind of hell. He is lost in his insanity, in a world he so prefers not to live in. He hates his life there. As he has gotten older, Hank is aware that his life is a tragedy. He, like Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7, is doing the things he hates. But he cannot stop! Like Paul, Hank is miserable; wretched.<\/p>\n

The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don\u2019t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don\u2019t do it. Instead, I do what I hate… I have discovered this principle of life\u2014that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God\u2019s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God\u2019s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Romans 7:14-15… 21-25 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice\u2014the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don\u2019t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God\u2019s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank God (for Paul, for Hank, for you and for me) that there is no condemnation for those in relationship with Christ. While Hank\u2019s spiritual life was\u00a0suffering, it was not dead. Thank God! You see, Hank is not alone in his story of addiction, repentance, recovery, and relapse. Scripture is loaded with stories that follow along the cycle of addiction for the person who professes to love God. I have written before about King David\u2019s life of temptation, sin, addiction, repentance, recovery, relapse, repentance, recovery, relapse, repentance, recovery, relapse\u2026 you get the gist.<\/p>\n