The Challenges of Leaving Prison
A friend of mine, Cedric, recently used an illustration to explain how
difficult life can be for people who have been released from
prison. He asked me to stand in the middle of a group and
hold a ball of yarn. I was supposed to represent an ex-prisoner.
Cedric asked those standing in the circle to mention challenges ex-prisoners face. When the first person spoke up, I held the end of the yarn and gave the roll to them. They held onto the yarn and tossed the ball to the next person, who named a different challenge.
By the time they were done, I was all wrapped up. I felt suffocated
by all the pressures they brought up: housing, parole fees, paying
for an ankle bracelet, child support payments, medication costs,
temptation, addictions, judgment, relationship issues, instability,
family stress, the struggle to find employment … When all of these
challenges stack up, they’re overwhelming.
Freedom for ex-prisoners is not the same as freedom for most people. Freedom is an obstacle course for ex-prisoners, with a high rate of failure. This is not a new reality. The world has always been hard on former inmates. Thousands of years ago, God broke the chains of imprisonment and slavery for a group of Israelites who had been confined in Egypt. They had endured what the Bible describes as “ruthless” treatment from the Egyptians (Exodus 1:13-14).
The Israelites faced beatings, unreasonable demands, and constant verbal abuse. Worst of all, they lost their infant boys to murder because the Egyptians felt threatened by their increasing population. The boys were sentenced to death as soon as they were born. The Egyptians took them from their parents and threw them into the river
God sent Moses, a survivor of the infant genocide who had escaped Egypt as an adult, to demand the release of the Israelites. When the leaders of Egypt didn’t listen to Moses, God sent devastating plagues on the Egyptians until their top official could no longer take it and told Moses to gather the prisoners and leave.
But freedom wasn’t a walk in the park. The newly freed group was vulnerable in many ways. Shelter was an ongoing challenge. For years, they were on the move and didn’t have a stable housing situation. There were also concerns about food, and people started to compare their food to the filling meals they had while they were enslaved (Exodus 16:3). There was also a threat of violence (Numbers 14:3-4). The men were afraid that other groups would kill them and take their wives and children as prize.
The group’s morale sank. Just as many ex-prisoners struggle in the days after release, the former slaves began to grumble and resent the uncertainties of freedom in the wilderness. Perhaps the most discouraging point for Moses came when he heard someone say: “Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:3)
The pressures of living free were so overwhelming that they wanted to go back. They were willing to sacrifice liberty and freedom for familiarity and certainty. They were willing to return to hard labor, abuse, ridicule, chains, lashings, and long hours in the heat.
Does this sound familiar? Has the difficulty of trying to stay on the right track convinced you to give up? Have you or a friend ever been released from prison – only to catch yourself wondering if there’s something you could do to get back behind bars, the only place that feels safe and familiar to you now?
Captivity (whether it’s physical captivity or captivity to a particular sin) might feel safer than freedom sometimes, but God made you for freedom, with all of its responsibilities and uncertainties. In fact, God loves it when a prisoner is set free. This is best illustrated in Psalm 107:10-16, a word-painting that describes God breaking apart shackles and prison bars for people who did wrong and then turned to God. The Bible describes His own Son as being on a mission to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners” (Luke 4:18). When someone is freed from any kind of bondage, God wants them to stay free.
God did immeasurably more for the Israelites than they could have hoped – even though things looked bad for a while. They didn’t go back to the prison of Egypt. They found the courage to focus on God and persevere. God showed them the path to a new home where they could start afresh. He can do the same for you
NOTE: This entry first appeared as an article in the Winter 2014 edition of Prison Fellowship's Inside Journal. You can read and print the original article by clicking here.
Cedric asked those standing in the circle to mention challenges ex-prisoners face. When the first person spoke up, I held the end of the yarn and gave the roll to them. They held onto the yarn and tossed the ball to the next person, who named a different challenge.
Freedom for ex-prisoners is not the same as freedom for most people. Freedom is an obstacle course for ex-prisoners, with a high rate of failure. This is not a new reality. The world has always been hard on former inmates. Thousands of years ago, God broke the chains of imprisonment and slavery for a group of Israelites who had been confined in Egypt. They had endured what the Bible describes as “ruthless” treatment from the Egyptians (Exodus 1:13-14).
The Israelites faced beatings, unreasonable demands, and constant verbal abuse. Worst of all, they lost their infant boys to murder because the Egyptians felt threatened by their increasing population. The boys were sentenced to death as soon as they were born. The Egyptians took them from their parents and threw them into the river
God sent Moses, a survivor of the infant genocide who had escaped Egypt as an adult, to demand the release of the Israelites. When the leaders of Egypt didn’t listen to Moses, God sent devastating plagues on the Egyptians until their top official could no longer take it and told Moses to gather the prisoners and leave.
But freedom wasn’t a walk in the park. The newly freed group was vulnerable in many ways. Shelter was an ongoing challenge. For years, they were on the move and didn’t have a stable housing situation. There were also concerns about food, and people started to compare their food to the filling meals they had while they were enslaved (Exodus 16:3). There was also a threat of violence (Numbers 14:3-4). The men were afraid that other groups would kill them and take their wives and children as prize.
The group’s morale sank. Just as many ex-prisoners struggle in the days after release, the former slaves began to grumble and resent the uncertainties of freedom in the wilderness. Perhaps the most discouraging point for Moses came when he heard someone say: “Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:3)
The pressures of living free were so overwhelming that they wanted to go back. They were willing to sacrifice liberty and freedom for familiarity and certainty. They were willing to return to hard labor, abuse, ridicule, chains, lashings, and long hours in the heat.
Does this sound familiar? Has the difficulty of trying to stay on the right track convinced you to give up? Have you or a friend ever been released from prison – only to catch yourself wondering if there’s something you could do to get back behind bars, the only place that feels safe and familiar to you now?
Captivity (whether it’s physical captivity or captivity to a particular sin) might feel safer than freedom sometimes, but God made you for freedom, with all of its responsibilities and uncertainties. In fact, God loves it when a prisoner is set free. This is best illustrated in Psalm 107:10-16, a word-painting that describes God breaking apart shackles and prison bars for people who did wrong and then turned to God. The Bible describes His own Son as being on a mission to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners” (Luke 4:18). When someone is freed from any kind of bondage, God wants them to stay free.
God did immeasurably more for the Israelites than they could have hoped – even though things looked bad for a while. They didn’t go back to the prison of Egypt. They found the courage to focus on God and persevere. God showed them the path to a new home where they could start afresh. He can do the same for you
NOTE: This entry first appeared as an article in the Winter 2014 edition of Prison Fellowship's Inside Journal. You can read and print the original article by clicking here.
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