The Morning After Getting Out of Prison
April 15, 2005
By Ken Alexander
Daily Grit Guest Blogger
February 16, 1988. Wes and I were in prison last night. I shared my story with a group of guys in the Michigan Reformatory chapel....some of them, I had done time with a number of years ago. The thing that surprised me the most was the renewal of hope for some of them after they heard my story.
Why was I surprised? Afterall, I'd told the story a number of times to students at schools, guys at W.J. Maxey's Training School, people in various churches.... The story seemed to take on a new face, a face of hope. The source of hope was, and always had been, Jesus Christ.
Why it struck a particularly different tone last night is a bit of a puzzle to me. Perhaps looking into some of those faces last night was like looking into a mirror, seeing eyes that seemed so dim a short time earlier now showed a bit of a sparkle, something renewed, new energy, re-lighting the pilot light to eventually light the flame.
April 15, 2005: I'm looking back over the past 17 years and trying to assess what I've learned. The main thing that occurs to me is a bit of a mystery....and then again, perhaps not a mystery at all. Jesus Christ is the same Person who reached down in 1976 as He is today; a Person who crashed through a bunch of bars and concrete and changed a heart and instilled new hope.