Leader’s Second Speech

Before we go to the next item on our schedule, I'd like to read selections from a letter written by a resident in a correctional institution.  He was not grouping and wrote to tell a team member why he was not.

"My life has been spent in one prison or another, so I know people in prison better than most because of the fact that I've been to so many different ones.  But most are the same, people-wise.

"People in prison have spent a lifetime hating, distrusting people.  Some are there because their best friend, wife, family or crime partners snitched on them.

"So, many put it in their hearts that they can't trust any man. Even though they have accepted the Lord in their lives, that fear of being close to others is still there.

"Even though they have made changes in their life, prison life doesn't change.  To become open or humble leaves you defenseless.  We've never had love, so it's hard to deal with the power of love because it overpowers you.  

I've seen many Christian brothers hurt by other Christian brothers.  I have watched some turn and go back to their old ways, because of Christians here who continually point fingers or talk about each other.

"It's hard.  The fear that this brother will tell another; next thing it keeps going.  Or any number of things [could] happen that hurt."

This man went on to say that he was grouping but he stopped because he couldn't "get comfortable enough."  For me, it is heart-breaking that he is missing the very thing which will empower him to overcome the trials which he is certain to face.  

He is going to miss the presence of Christ in his life.  He is going to miss him because Christ comes to all of us through the people with whom we form intimate community, that Koinonia (pronounced Coin-O-nia) about which I spoke earlier.