Trudging through our dysfunctional legal system with a loved one and/or family member is full of challenges. This can be further complicated when incarceration is many miles from home and attendant family and church support, or when having the family persistently treated with disrespect, and subjected to financial abuse. All this results in a pervasive and persistent distraction from living with necessary attention to problem solving, embracing a quiet space, saving for emergencies and retirement, and hundreds of other important challenges. We want to support our loved one, but we also want a life with more conventional problems that might be discussed freely at the beauty shop and in Sunday School class. Instead, the incarceration related part of our lives bleeds all over ... well, over everything. We pay in eroding focus, energy, and patience
For families convinced that their loved one has experienced a true miscarriage of justice either through being wrongly convicted or excessively charged or sentenced, the challenges are even greater. They feel bound to keep supporting their loved ones in ways that may inadvertently make it difficult for any one to find peace or purpose in the time away from the free-world. Finding healthy ways to advocate for a loved one seems to me to need a component using a deep understanding of the prison system to advocate for big changes. Of course trying to get proper medical care or mental health care is urgent and essential, but there are ways to encourage our loved ones to adopt a larger view.
"...take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking-around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him...Readily recognize what He wants from you and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." from Rom. 12:3-20.
I am blown away when I learn of or meet incarcerated folks who take this verse far more seriously than I have for most of my life. I have also seen this with the chronically or terminally ill who choose to live fully although most of us would find it hard to conceive of such a possibility with the challenges we see them live with daily. Their courage and grace give me hope and humility at the same time.
Let us pray for the families of the incarcerated that they may find hope and joy and purpose in the midst of chaos and by doing so, shine a light into the lives of their incarcerated loved ones. And for incarcerated persons who have found Truth and Love and Forgiveness in a new or renewed relationship with their Father God and Creator, let their new life speak to their loved ones in the free world, that they too might be freed to fulfill the purpose for which they were created.
Father God, I know no other hope for today than in You, God. I know no other hope for eternity than in You, Lord. I know no other hope for my loved ones than in You, God. Spirit of God, pour Your healing and truth out into our lives and teach us how to fully embrace all Your blessings. AMEN
For families convinced that their loved one has experienced a true miscarriage of justice either through being wrongly convicted or excessively charged or sentenced, the challenges are even greater. They feel bound to keep supporting their loved ones in ways that may inadvertently make it difficult for any one to find peace or purpose in the time away from the free-world. Finding healthy ways to advocate for a loved one seems to me to need a component using a deep understanding of the prison system to advocate for big changes. Of course trying to get proper medical care or mental health care is urgent and essential, but there are ways to encourage our loved ones to adopt a larger view.
"...take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking-around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him...Readily recognize what He wants from you and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." from Rom. 12:3-20.
I am blown away when I learn of or meet incarcerated folks who take this verse far more seriously than I have for most of my life. I have also seen this with the chronically or terminally ill who choose to live fully although most of us would find it hard to conceive of such a possibility with the challenges we see them live with daily. Their courage and grace give me hope and humility at the same time.
Let us pray for the families of the incarcerated that they may find hope and joy and purpose in the midst of chaos and by doing so, shine a light into the lives of their incarcerated loved ones. And for incarcerated persons who have found Truth and Love and Forgiveness in a new or renewed relationship with their Father God and Creator, let their new life speak to their loved ones in the free world, that they too might be freed to fulfill the purpose for which they were created.
Father God, I know no other hope for today than in You, God. I know no other hope for eternity than in You, Lord. I know no other hope for my loved ones than in You, God. Spirit of God, pour Your healing and truth out into our lives and teach us how to fully embrace all Your blessings. AMEN
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