This week I attended a Church leadership development conference at Angola, Louisiana State Penitentiary.
This year was the 6th annual High Ground event at Angola. Ronnie Oliver was the guest of honor.
I met Ronnie Slim in 2013 on my first trip to Angola. Being my first time in a maximum security prison, I was terrified. Ronnie’s prayers and connection calmed my fears that day and countless times since.
After spending 26 years in prison, Ronnie went free about three months ago. This is a video of his testimony.
If I wouldn’t come to Angola, I’d be dead. I had no peace.
I have experienced the peace that surpasses all understanding.
It makes you comfortable in the most uncomfortable situation.
Ronald Oliver
This week was Ronnie’s first time back at Angola.
Seeing Ronnie Slim walk around, as a free man, the prison that had contained him for 26 years, was like seeing him walk on water. He encouraged every man just with his witness.
Walking Faithfully With the Lord
Ronnie was mobbed by inmates that wanted to see him and connect with him and hug him. He had made it home, the place every inmate hoped to be. But the reason they flocked to him was that they loved him so deeply.
Ronnie is so beloved because of how he connects with others from a place of humility as a spiritual leader.
He has persevered in the face of trials; he has restored peoples hope when they are in a place of hopelessness. The way he lives his life is evidence of the restorative power of Christ.
Ronnie had found freedom long before he left prison. It was freedom in walking faithfully with the Lord. In a previous post, I tried to write about this type of freedom.
Experiencing Shalom
At the start of the year, our small group decided to pick a word that you would characterize 2019. I picked the word “shalom.”
The Bible translates shalom as peace. However, after doing a word study, I discovered that shalom is much more multidimensional than just peace.
Shalom, which we translate as peace, also means wholeness, wellness, thriving, restoration to the fullness of life.
While at Angola Prison yesterday, Don Cousins gave a leadership talk to inmate pastors. Through his talk, and later throughout the day, I didn’t just learn about shalom; I experienced it in my own life.
The goal of ministry is restoration. As pastors, we work to restore people to the shalom that Jesus offers.
Don Cousins
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:19-20
The reality was, what I was experiencing when I heard this message, was far from peace. That morning I woke up in a panic as I couldn’t figure out my flight arrangements home later that evening.
I had spent the first hour of the day trying to figure out where my confirmation was, what airline I was on and what time of departure. I came to realize that I failed to book a flight home.
How can I get all the way to a prison in Louisiana and not have a booked a flight home?
This type of thing is not an isolated incident for me, so that realization brought the self-loathing to a new level. How could I be so stupid?
I found a flight with an available seat, twice what I originally would have paid, but the website would not process the confirmation. Neither would the app work.
It seemed like everything was against me, and I felt like I was losing my mind.
This is on top of the last few months that had brought experiences, self-inflicted or otherwise, that was overwhelming me. I was spending all my energy just treading water, being pounded by waves, when all I wanted to do was go surfing in the sun.
Anxiety had gripped me as I wasn’t sure my flight confirmation would go thought. My hurried spirit made it difficult to connect with inmates and talk to them.
A Longing Fulfilled
Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life
Proverbs 13:12
This proverb is one that I have heard many times at Angola in the context of not giving up hope that you would find freedom.
Even though it is a simple proverb, I hadn’t fully grasped it as I was living on the heart sick side of the equation. Things hadn’t been going my way or turning out as I had hoped.
There was a sense of hopelessness that things were not going to change. I touched on the issues that hopelessness causes in all areas of life in my post on optimism.
I was feeling these hard feelings as I walked into the final Church meeting of event High Ground event yesterday. Even though I had just heard a talk on shalom, the knot in my stomach and the pace of my heart was a reminder that I wasn’t experiencing peace or any of the other dimensions of shalom.
In the next hour, I felt peace, shalom and a sense of freedom that was as a longing fulfilled.
An Assault against God
Prison worship is an experience like no other. When you know people and their stories and their hardships and struggles and you see them worshiping with all they have got, it moves you.
Brian Lorrits gave a message from James 5:7-11 on having patience in the face of hardships.
Be patient, then, brothers until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
James 5:7-11
During the message, Brian looked at the command: do not grumble. He talked about how it was like shaking your fist at God and saying “I know better than you!”
It was easy to acknowledge that this was me.
A powerful tonal quality to Brain’s vocal cords seems to make Gods word reverberate!
So I unclenched my fist and turned it into a hand of praise that was open to receive mercy. I experienced peace and freedom from anxiety in my gut and a relaxed and calm heart rate. Once again, I felt free.
I am starting to learn that freedom is an internal reality despite external circumstances. Joy is divine happiness in the face of a hard situation.
In one day I witnessed freedom in Ronnie Slim, learned about shalom from Don Cousins and experienced freedom from anxiety from Brian Lorrits and the time of worship.
I walked out the side door of the Chapel, shaking my head, thinking phew, what just happened in there!
Though he slay me,
yet I will hope in him.
Job 13:15