The Stealer

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“Put your hands up and lean your hands against the wall!” yelled the deputy, after gloving his hands. He was upset when one of the LVN’s called him after seeing that this particular inmate wove his right hand through the thick, glass partition window. Through different sizes of boxed gloves and tried to reach for a pen. He was still holding the pen when the LVN, sitting from where he was, suddenly looked up and caught him.

“I was just going to write something!” the inmate tried to make a plea to the taller deputy who started searching for his pockets and started checking his body orifices.

“I don’t know what else he took “profanity” …….!”yelled the charge nurse. “You are supposed to only take your blood sugar and not help yourself with things around here!” she added.

Who wouldn’t be angry with this inmate? When he knew the rules that they were not allowed to have any pens. They can be made into a potential, harmful weapon if it ends up with their hands.

Most of the nurses were yelling profanities against him. As I watched the deputy and saw him found a few graham crackers from him. They were not harmful. But the problem was his blood sugar level that morning was normal. And he wasn’t given graham crackers at all.

This inmate knew he was in deep trouble. Either he would be put on discipline where he would be housed alone for a certain amount of days or his sentence would be a little longer. Or both.

It’s easy to see ourselves justifiably angry against sins. Against someone else’s sins. But we must speak against sins in the spirit of humility. Oftentimes, the sins we see in others are the same sins that have taken place in us. How often have I witnessed a “gossiper” at work, upset and critical of others who gossip about him/her?

We deal with thousands of inmates. All there because they committed crimes. Murder. Rape. Stealing. Abuse. And many other evil things. They are living their lives devoid of God’s knowledge.

“When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should have never been done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving. They are fully aware of God’s death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” - Romans 1:28-32

We can never think that in God’s silence, it’s okay to do these sins and get away with them. God is a merciful God Who is being patient and is holding back His judgment so we can turn away from our sins. As Christians, we must ask the Lord to search our hearts so that He can heal them and help us turn away from doing those things that do not please Him. I’m not perfect like you. But we must continue to learn more about Him in order for us to be victorious. To be holy like our Holy God.

Jesus is the ONLY WAY. The ONLY TRUTH. The ONLY LIFE.