I've been at this jail ministry thing for a good 15+ years now. It does not get old, it does not become boring. Every visit is brand new and every Sunday, no matter how many crazy things you've seen or experienced, is different. Different people, different needs, even I am different than when I first started.
Today we examined some topics from the book of Proverbs. LOVE Proverbs. So much WISDOM. Today was different though . . I realized that most of these women, while they understood that wisdom was good and something they needed, had no clue what wisdom really was. Thankfully I have a wise pastor, and have read other wise pastors who's definitions on "Bible words" I've collected over the years for this very reason.
There were other words we dealt with too . . . "understanding" being one of them. The best way I could explain it was "insight", seeing beyond the obvious. So I held up four fingers and asked them how many I was holding up.
The scene where Harold Gould did the same to Robin Williams in Patch Adams was profound for me. "Eight fingers" turned out to be a wonderful way of approaching life and even a teaching tool as I prepared my children for adulthood. And it was the best way I could approach developing insight to the women I spent this morning with. The fingers can be anything - walls people put up around them, social/racial/gender identity, solitude from hiding the pain . . .
So without further adieu, I hope this means as much to you as it does to me:
