God is Where?

While taking a course in Forensic Psychology at Southern Adventist University near Chattanooga, Tennessee, I had the opportunity to visit a prison. For the first half of the semester, our professor, Bob Egbert, had been saying we’d be going this week, unfortunately for Dr. Egbert, this week kept running into next week, and the next week, and the next week and—you get the idea. The week after returning from Spring Break, I got a phone call from the psychology office saying that our class would be going to CCA Silverdale, a medium-security prison near Chattanooga, that Wednesday.

I looked on the outing with mixed feelings. I really didn’t know what to expect, but if you watch enough movies, TV, and hear enough stories, you can understand where I was a little apprehensive. Each week I secretly rejoiced that we weren’t going to be able to go because something came up, or was rescheduled, or whatever other difficulty popped up. Outwardly I was disappointed, but inwardly, well, I wasn’t losing any sleep over it. When the call came and I knew that we actually were going, I was a little nervous and holding on to a dim hope that something would come up once again. It would seem, however, that God is not without a sense of humor.

We got to Silverdale, and were asked to sign in. ‘So far so good,’ I was thinking. Then we were frisked, which actually made a great deal of sense to me. On of my fellow classmates, Paul, had to leave his coffee mug in the car, the poor guy. I’ve never seen anyone drink coffee that fast before, and it couldn’t have been that much fun. Everyone else made it in without incident, though. I did, however, stay near Jonathan and Donny, who are both a little taller than me. The chaplain was giving us a tour of the place, and we began by walking through the women’s ward.

I’ll not bore you with most of the mundane details. We got to see many different aspects of the prison, and then we ended up in the men’s library, which was also where the chaplain’s office was. Two inmates agreed to come in and speak with us. We were able to ask them why they were there and basically anything else we could think of, but they were under no obligation to tell us anything. The more talkative of the two had quite a few things to say, and I was amazed at what I was hearing.

He was an older black gentleman, in his mid-forties, and he was in for his second six-month sentence for minor theft. He said that he had children, and that drugs were the actual reason he was there. He told us that he used to deal and do drugs, and that cocaine was his drug of choice. He discussed being an addict, and how even if you manage to break away from your drug of choice, just doing something else like having some alcohol will undoubtedly lead you right back to it. His oldest son was in a federal penitentiary, he informed us, and he blamed himself for it because he always had drugs in the house when the boy was younger. He proceeded then to say something that rocked my world. He informed us rather boldly that we need to take time and associate with our children, and that the family that prays together stays together. That, from a man who was in prison!

It really got me to thinking about how God is in the most bizarre places. I was loathing having to go to this prison, thinking that all the inmates there really deserved what they got. I had a low opinion of the place before I even set foot there, but God, in His infinite wisdom, put me exactly where I needed to be. It reminds me of a verse I read in Romans, which says,

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!  (Romans 11:33)

To me what Paul is saying is that God already knows more than I do because He’s been here longer and He is Creator of all things. I didn’t want to go to the prison because I thought I knew what was there.  But God showed me that I didn’t know anything about it, and that He had already been in that place.

It was very humbling, yet at the same time it revealed God’s sense of humor. Of all the places where I expected to find God, I found Him where? I found my Jesus in a prisoner, and it was exactly when I needed Him, even if I didn’t know it. When you face trials in life, always remember that God is there and always has been, and He will get you through.