Spiritual Survival Guide
6: Keeping It Going: Moving Beyond Survival Mode
Listening to this long list of challenges and frustrations might lead you to think that nothing truly good can ever happen in prison, and that the only good day is the day the gate swings open and you walk out. But that’s just not true. Thank God that there are all kinds of positive things going on inside. Lives are truly being changed. Deep transforma- tion is going on. There are blessings and surprises and joyful moments to praise God for. Let’s look at some of them.
I’ve had many surprises over the years.The first one is when I backed away from the gang in here.There were other members who wanted or did take that same leap of faith—it started a big thing in here. —Jacques I’m surprised that I can feel content, that I can humble myself, and that I can still have a sound mind. —JT After so much hardship and hurt, my biggest surprise is that I was able to find true peace. Not to say that I don’t have bad days—I do—but I now have the calm of the Holy Spirit. —Doaikah My biggest surprise and joy has been learning who I really am. God has revealed to me my true identity: I’ve had to get used to this new man who I’d never met before. He is wonderful! —Rodney I’m surprised that I am not the same person that I used to be eight years ago; that Christ loves me; that I can now talk to people about God; that I will be home soon to teach this amaz- ing Word of God to my wife and kids. —Timothy Being in a stressful place like this—enough to drive a sane man berserk—the biggest surprise is that I can actually have joy in my life! God is good! —Kentes
Biggest Surprises and Joys
So much of prison life revolves around long periods of “routine,” punc- tuated by crazy, out-of-control incidents, followed by mind-numbing lockdowns, followed by—you guessed it, another long period of “rou- tine.” But in the middle of that big, predictable, overall cycle, God can have lots of surprises and joys in store for us, if we know where to look. At the beginning of this Spiritual Survival Guide we talked about the “lights-on” guys you come across in prison. They have learned where to find surprising and joyful things and moments. Here are the top four things they told us about. We can actually change. It’s a funny thing: We can yearn and hope and pray for something for so long that we’re actually surprised when we finally get it. Often, we just catch glimpses of how we’re changing in- side. Just as our “bad side” can remain hidden from us, so can our new, “God-shaped” side. Most of the time we’re so focused on what hasn’t happened yet that we tend to overlook what has already happened. Real change takes time. We overestimate what we can change in a year, but we also underestimate what God can do in us over five years. Listen to some very surprised changed men—men who found new beginnings, contentment, humility, sanity, peace, joy, self-love, and a bright future.
True spiritual friends. Just as a lot of us never truly thought we’d see deep change in our souls a few years ago, we also never thought we’d find other men who truly knew how to be a positive, healthy, loyal,
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