December 23, 2006 Christmas Eve-eve: San Quentin Story
THE REAL (ESTATE) STORY
By Larry Underhill
SAN QUENTIN PRISON. Sometime in the late seventies. As I walked into the visitor’s area for the compulsory (and exceedingly thorough) search, I could feel the deep chill of the concrete walls. The further I walked into the prison, the more the walls closed in on me.
We were escorted through several sets of clanging iron gates. It was Sunday, and my little group was on its way to the prison chapel to meet the “inside” members of a group called Free Con In Christ. We were with the “outside” members.
Before and after the church service, we had a chance to talk with the other attendees (the ones who would not be going to the parking lot at the end of the meeting). I remember vividly my conversation with one big guy, a newcomer to the chapel service. He expressed concern about whether God could forgive him after the things he had done in his life. Now, I’ve talked with a lot of men over the years who have a kind of macho “I’m so bad God can’t forgive me” attitude. My standard reply is, “You haven’t killed anybody, have you? Jesus can forgive that, so he can surely forgive you.”
That’s usually a good answer. It’s usually enough to help somebody grasp the depth of God’s love. In this conversation, however, it brought a response that was a surprise to me. The man looked thoughtful for a moment and answered, “Well, yes. My wife and my father-in-law.”
After a long pause and a deep breath, I said, “Well, Jesus can forgive that!” I introduced him to another double murderer who had a leading part in the church service. Who better to tell the guy about God’s forgiveness than another con with personal experience?
I have a friend who grew up in San Francisco, a child of the sixties and early seventies who, like me, came to know Jesus Christ after riding the whirlwind of the age. We both look back and remember people who didn’t make it to their twenty-fifth birthday, and we both know it could have been us if it weren’t for God’s amazing, unexplainable grace. We’ve observed that we’re much blessed because we don’t have any illusions about our “goodness”. I look back on some of the craziness of those early years and say, “My best thinking got me there!” I know that any “good” people see in me is courtesy of my Senior Partner.
Grace: “Undeserved favor”. Grace is when you get from God what you don’t deserve (like forgiveness, unconditional love).
Mercy: Mercy is when you DON’T get what you DO deserve from God. The Christians I met in San Quentin, like my friend and I, were very much aware that they owed every breath to the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
How about you? As Christmas Day approaches and the baby-in-the-manger story is on peoples’ minds once again, are you curious about who this Jesus really is? Tomorrow’s a good day to check out a Christmas-eve church service and hear why they call the Christmas message “The Good News”. Merry Christmas.
By Larry Underhill
SAN QUENTIN PRISON. Sometime in the late seventies. As I walked into the visitor’s area for the compulsory (and exceedingly thorough) search, I could feel the deep chill of the concrete walls. The further I walked into the prison, the more the walls closed in on me.
We were escorted through several sets of clanging iron gates. It was Sunday, and my little group was on its way to the prison chapel to meet the “inside” members of a group called Free Con In Christ. We were with the “outside” members.
Before and after the church service, we had a chance to talk with the other attendees (the ones who would not be going to the parking lot at the end of the meeting). I remember vividly my conversation with one big guy, a newcomer to the chapel service. He expressed concern about whether God could forgive him after the things he had done in his life. Now, I’ve talked with a lot of men over the years who have a kind of macho “I’m so bad God can’t forgive me” attitude. My standard reply is, “You haven’t killed anybody, have you? Jesus can forgive that, so he can surely forgive you.”
That’s usually a good answer. It’s usually enough to help somebody grasp the depth of God’s love. In this conversation, however, it brought a response that was a surprise to me. The man looked thoughtful for a moment and answered, “Well, yes. My wife and my father-in-law.”
After a long pause and a deep breath, I said, “Well, Jesus can forgive that!” I introduced him to another double murderer who had a leading part in the church service. Who better to tell the guy about God’s forgiveness than another con with personal experience?
I have a friend who grew up in San Francisco, a child of the sixties and early seventies who, like me, came to know Jesus Christ after riding the whirlwind of the age. We both look back and remember people who didn’t make it to their twenty-fifth birthday, and we both know it could have been us if it weren’t for God’s amazing, unexplainable grace. We’ve observed that we’re much blessed because we don’t have any illusions about our “goodness”. I look back on some of the craziness of those early years and say, “My best thinking got me there!” I know that any “good” people see in me is courtesy of my Senior Partner.
Grace: “Undeserved favor”. Grace is when you get from God what you don’t deserve (like forgiveness, unconditional love).
Mercy: Mercy is when you DON’T get what you DO deserve from God. The Christians I met in San Quentin, like my friend and I, were very much aware that they owed every breath to the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
How about you? As Christmas Day approaches and the baby-in-the-manger story is on peoples’ minds once again, are you curious about who this Jesus really is? Tomorrow’s a good day to check out a Christmas-eve church service and hear why they call the Christmas message “The Good News”. Merry Christmas.
Labels: Grace and Mercy defined...
posted by Larry Underhill at 17:17
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