40 Prisoners

In a small rehabilitation center on the outskirts of Morelia Mexico a group of forty men slowly walk out of the confined quarters of the meeting room. Heads down, hands clasped behind their backs looking at nothing but their feet moving across the floor. They are not as much prisoners of the building as much as prisoners of the choices they’ve made in the past. They are all here trying to rebuild their lives after being addicted to alcohol or drugs.

We all came to the meeting with certain expectations about who they would be and what they would look like. This was definitely not the usual type of presentation that we’re used to at Book of Hope. All these men were all at least as old as I am or older. Definitely not the crowd we’re used to speaking to. Yet these men opened their hearts and lives to us for an hour as we presented Hope to them. We were allowed to show a movie to them about the life of Jesus. Book of Hope’s animated movie “The GodMan” may have been created to reach a younger audience than these men; yet somewhere deep inside them they knew this was their story as well. It was the story of how someone greater than them had given up everything to live among us and die in our place. That is the story that transcends time, social status, languages, cultural differences, race, gender or environmental being.

I suppose there really is no difference between those 40 men and I. We’ve all been prisoners at one time to things that we thought would bring us happiness or fulfillment, and God doesn’t judge in “shades” or levels of sin. In our world we have different types of law breaking, in His eyes it all looks the same. There is no worse sin than another, there is no smaller or less significant rule breaking. No lessening to the degree of what we’ve done against God.

I think this idea really hits when you start thinking that you’re somehow better or more holy than the people you’re speaking to. Forgetting where your passport was issued, what color your skin is or isn’t, what language you speak or where you’re from. Instead remembering what an honor it is that God would choose us to send His message. How incredible that He would let us carry this message of redemption and love. Remembering that we were just like those we are now speaking to. No better in any way, just aware of the truth that God has revealed to us.

As we finished our presentation many of the men began giving short testimonies about what God had done in their lives. Some asked simply if they could share, others just stood up and started talking. Some even tried relating their story in English, only to quickly switch to Spanish to fully detail the events.

These men have made different choices than I have in life, they were born into different circumstances and different environments. Maybe our stories would have been switched had we been born in different places. In the same way God looks at sin all the same, He now looks down and sees those 40 prisoners and I the same. His children.