Lessons from Alcatraz

So the warden let us off last week for good behavior.

What an experience it was recently to visit The Rock -- the former federal penitentiary on a small island, just a mile from San Francisco. So close, and so far.

Prisoners, we were told, could sometimes hear (and even see -- from the prison recreation yard) folks sailing in the Bay and having "fun." All while the inmates served their time day-after-day in a cold, drafty and damp cell.

They, no doubt, "deserved" it. Certainly the prisoners who were sent to Alcatraz were the worst of the worst. Men who had often caused trouble in other prisons across the country and needed maximum security lock-down.

Still, what torment it must have been for them, to daily see the San Francisco skyline and watch the sailboats so nearby. It reminded me of how someone once described hell: like an itch you can't scratch.

Some found they couldn't stand it. Thirty-four men tried to escape; all but five were  caught. One made it to entrance of the Bay but was picked up on the rocks under the Golden Gate Bridge, too weak from the extremely strenuous swim to even lift himself out of the water. The five who were never seen again are presumed dead, lost to the strong current and cold waters of the Bay.

My thoughts shifted as I stared at that now taunting skyline, where the people-who-were-not-in-prison lived.

Doesn't it sometimes seem like the folks who don't yet know our good God are having a really great time, like those city folks seen in the distance from Alcatraz? I know better. I'm old enough to know that when the "fun" times are over, that life can get really HARD for all of us. How much more so for those who haven't yet tapped into the true Source of Life.

All-too-quickly, they become the ones trapped on a rocky place, seeing life happen at a distance, the answer within reach. And amazingly, I find that I can be part of the answer -- if I'd only see it -- through God's undeserved and lavish grace.

We know only too well those people God has put in our lives, the ones who need LIFE -- whether we're fond of them, annoyed by them or sometimes even have less-than-kind thoughts of them. For whatever reason, God has put them in our lives and on our hearts.

We'd much rather keep them at a distance. Yet that everlasting tug keeps pulling on our hearts.

I need to remember that the next time I get a nasty e-mail or a hateful piece of snail mail, especially when the sender is someone who sits in a pew each Sunday. They still need LIFE and peace. And transformation.

Maybe someday I'll see that more quickly, and get past the snarking about it.

I mean, it's not like I don't still need transformation. And most days, I look better from a distance, too.

Travel can be really good for the soul.

Comments

[John]

Very good post. The grumpier ones in the pews might irritate us, but they need our pity and our prayers even more than most.