Those clanging sounds

Folks, entering a prison can be an enlightening experience!

I remember the first time I went inside a prison as a volunteer for the Kairos program. I recall that after the "powers that be" had finished checking and approving my credentials, a finger pushed a button and I heard the eerie clanging sounds of a heavy metal door that began sliding open.

Then we were permitted to enter a small room. After entering, the door again made those sounds as it closed and another door at the other side of the room opened uttering those same sounds.

We stepped from the room out into the fresh air only to be confronted by a 10 to 15 foot high heavy steel fence with a locked gate. Again a finger must have pushed a button as another kind of metallic sound was made as the gate was unlocked. It was then that it first dawned upon me that I had lost control. From now on, until we left this institution, I would be told just what I may or may not do while there.

Then we began our walk of some 100 yards towards the next building. As we walked I noticed, off to our right, a high guard tower. In it were sharpshooters scanning the area for any illegal person who might be moving in this area.

As we entered the next building, we were confronted by guards standing behind a scanning device that we had to pass through. We had to remove anything metallic from our person. We then walked through the scanning device that did not make any sound unless you had something that you could not take into that area.

Next we had to give our credentials to the officers at the next station. After they took these items; a finger touched a button again and those metallic sounds occurred once again as another sliding door opened and we entered into another small room with the door closing behind us. As this door closed the next one opened, making the same noises and we were allowed to leave the building and go approximately 15 or 20 feet where a locked gate had to be opened by an officer. After that, the chapel was unlocked and we were finally at our destination.

I have thought about this a lot. Unsettling as this was for a visitor; how devastating this must be for anyone who is being brought there as a prisoner. Oh I know the prisoner may have asked for it by the life he lived.

Be that as it may, I often think about how many of us have asked, in different ways, to be a prisoner because of love for money, alcohol, drugs, self, etc. We become prisoners because of the lives we live and the habits we choose to rule our lives. Oh we may have heard those eerie sounds of doors opening and closing behind us and robbing us of our freedoms. Never the less we sometimes chose to ignore them. Also we may not have sought help in changing our habits and begin living a different and much better life.

This is what the Kairos program is teaching some inmates in prisons across this country and around the world. They are shown and told about a new and different life.

Is it making a difference? Yes it is! Prisoners are finding God and He is making a difference in their lives. They have found the Truth and the Truth has set them free.

Oh yes those clanging doors will still close behind the prisoners. However they are free in spirit. Be that as it may, there are ways all of us can be prisoners and the clanging doors are slowly closing behind us. However the source of freedom is the same for us all!

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