Prison Talk — ‘Prison Is Spent on How One Views the Time’

With curiosity, many people ask me: How is your time spent in prison? I would rearrange that inquiry and reply: “Prison is spent on how one views the time.” It is really simple when we are able to see things from the right perspective.
I cannot claim to always have the right view, but I am only able to respond to the original question about prison from what I call a “view apart:” A view that relies on my faith and not my sight, and a view that is the opposite of the natural—is, rather, supernatural; a view that allows me to feel “imprisoned by peace.”
It is a common precept to say that all things will eventually pass, but what is done with the time that passes? Since I became an inmate of the State, my focus has been on utilizing the time in a deliberate, constructive manner.
My view apart is one in which my faith protects me from what I see around me, for there is nothing but chaos 24/7—crude words, lewd actions, aggression, racism, bullying, just to name a few. It is my faith that allows me to feel peace through this chaos. Having experienced forgiveness from my victim’s family and my God, I try to view everything that assaults my senses with the heart and eyes of Christ.
Therefore, this view apart impacts how I spend my time, and for me it is the difference between ugliness and beauty. An inmate passes his time in ugliness when he chooses the wrong things to pass the time: complaining, arguing, and dwelling with bitterness on the past. Likewise, an inmate passes his time in beauty when he chooses the right things: encouraging, learning, and pressing on in the present. When we spend time with either attribute—ugliness or beauty—we begin to take on its appearance.
In Ecclesiastes 3, it says, “What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
I have given this phrase, “in its time,” a lot of thought. Time spent wrapped up in ourselves will eventually come unraveled at the seams. Time spent numbing the pain will eventually increase the pain. Time spent filling our mind with toxic material will eventually spew out like vomit.
“In its time.” Time spent with a selfless heart will eventually show less of yourself and more of WHO lives in your heart (Christ). Time spent using your pain as a passion will eventually help others with their pain in passing. Time spent filling our minds with God’s word will eventually flow forth like rivers of life.
“In its time.” Our appearance shows out what we allow in. I spend a lot of time working on the ugly in my character by using the beauty of Jesus to polish me out. I see triumph in my tragedy because I know God makes beauty from ashes. I see freedom in this time. I see character sharpening in this time. I see peace through confinement in this time. God’s will be done, in His time!
The way we inmates spend our time will eventually make or break our future upon release. What emerges from the cocoon of a common caterpillar when given the proper time? A beautiful butterfly. “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
Even with the ugliness that surrounds me—the cursing, the lust, the evil, the fights, the hate, the envy—I am committed to spend this time in beauty with a view apart; a view that sees outwardly what I have committed inwardly: self-control, goodness, contentedness, love.
Only by God’s grace in this time, will this time come to pass.