There has been an angry inmate on a wing of the jail. I know this inmate is of another religion than Christianity. Recently, we had CityGate Church in to do the Sunday service, and at that service, there was a specific incident where this inmate rather boldly challenged (heckled) Pastor John of CityGate Church during the sermon. It could be passed off as normal laughter from the inmate, but it was really intended to be a taunt, and it was a little uncomfortable, like a heckling. Then as the inmate was leaving, when he was lined up along the wall with the other inmates to go back to their cells, he said to me:
“Chap I want you to come see me tomorrow, I’m gonna have some words with you.“
I was excited to go and talk to this Inmate the next day. Through the years, I’ve thought that the LORD has given me capacities to be productive in situations of opposition in ministry, by GOD’s power working through me, where often those who oppose will be brought to Jesus. After doing Jail minister for so many years, I’ve gone through all the arguments, I’ve dealt with all the objections, and I’ve developed scriptural verse-to-verse responses to anything an inmate can bring to me.
So, feeling very confident, I was excited to go see this Inmate. I was telling my wife, chaplain Amy, “I can’t wait to go see this Inmate.” So, the next day, which was a Monday, I excitedly (and aggressively) was walking to this Inmate cell, as my first stop, ready to roll. Thinking back, I believe my intentions were too aggressive, and if GOD did not intervene and change my perspective, I might have gone into this cell block with the wrong energy in my heart in talking to this inmate.
So, here’s what happened next…
With, I now admit, too aggressive of a stance in my heart, just before I arrived at the cell bars, and right as I was turning the corner to go down the hallway which would lead me to the opening and the bars of this inmate’s cell, a profound thing happened. The best way I can describe it is that the LORD totally changed my heart. It was as if the Lord was speaking inside of me. It was as if I could hear in my soul:
“Wrong, Jeff… This inmate is your friend… You are first-and-foremost friends with everyone here… And you are their nurse, their helper, a hand reaching out to them in their state of need and hurt.”
Wow! I just stopped walking for a moment, just paused in that hallway, about five feet from the doorway which would bring me to the bars and face-to-face with the inmate.
I just stood there, all-of-a-sudden, frozen in my tracks, thinking to myself,
“What is the LORD talking about… Don’t I have to assert myself here, to set this inmate straight…?”
I stood there thinking for about 20-30 seconds. And then I concluded in my mind the following:
“Well, the LORD is saying something, I guess I need to have a different approach in talking to this inmate?”
From everything I had been thinking, my first intention was to go and answer any objections this inmate could present to me, but now after GOD brought His presence over me, He changed me and my only intentions were consequently of gentleness, love, and to help. I was thinking to myself,
“All I can feel now is gentleness, softness, and to reach out in help to this inmate, and I am going to get eaten alive–but I can’t change what Jesus has implanted in my soul.”
So, with a totally new stance and approach, I turned the corner and walked into the cell area. There was the inmate, pacing back and forth in the back of his cell. He said absolutely nothing to me when I walked up, as if he’d never said 24 hours earlier:
“Chap come and see me, I have some words for you…”
No, instead, he just kept pacing. And deep in my soul, through all the LORD‘s beautiful energy, GOD was feeding His presence into me, and His presence was saying:
“This is not why you are here, this man is your friend.“
“A friend?“ I was thinking of myself as I walked up. If you’d seen how this inmate was acting 24 hours earlier, friend is the last thing you’d think was going on. We don’t really ever have inmates who are hostile to the jail ministry anymore; it’s been years since there’s been any hostile really at all, but this one, this inmate, could be counted as an instance of this.
So, I walked up to the cell, and another inmate in the cell, who I’ve been talking to for months, a very strong believer, walked right to me at the bars, and started talking to me. He had a whole list of things to discuss. And I quickly forgot all about the heckling inmate, who was pacing back-and-forth in the back of the cell as I talk to this other inmate at the bars. Often this happens: you talk to one inmate at the bars, and the inmates in the back are listening-in. Later on, or even much later on, I will often hear instances of these back-of-the-cell inmates saying,
“I heard you saying this about Jesus weeks ago, and it really got me thinking,” or something like that.
So, I talk to this inmate that walked up to the bars, the strong believer, for about 10 minutes. And all of a sudden, out of the blue, to my absolute astonishment, a miracle happened: the inmate who was so openly hostile and mocking to the CityGate Church pastor the day before, said to me:
“You all in the Jail mystery come in here to talk to us out of the goodness of your own hearts.“
I at first thought maybe he was kidding… But he wasn’t!
Whatever happened the day before at the church service was gone and forgotten. Poof! Vanished! This inmate was not kidding; and he was reaching out to me in a gesture of love and friendship.
I just sat there and thought for a second; it took me a moment to understood that this Inmate was simply being honest, and that something changed. I don’t recall what me and the believer inmate that I was at the bars talking to, were talking about, but I believe something we were saying evoked the hostile (formerly hostile) inmate to say that. And he said it so real and deeply, as if reaching out in his heart to us. It was as if he was so happy I was there, to see the men in the cell, and spread such good news (the believer inmate and I were talking about Jesus).
Ever since this point, this inmate has been absolutely warm hearted and excited to talk. I walked up as if ready to assert myself, but the LORD tore me down, and made me like a leper, or a little child, full of softness, to prepare me for what the LORD was going with this inmate.
