Locked Up

What happens when we are tossed aside and forgotten?

I cried to you, O LORD; *I pleaded with the Lord, saying,"What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the Pit? *will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness?Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me; *O LORD, be my helper."You have turned my wailing into dancing; *you have put off my sack-cloth and clothed me with joy.Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing; *O LORD my God, I will give you thanks for ever. - Psalm 30:9-13

I just happened to catch a comment posted on LinkedIn four days ago by Reformed, an organization in Liverpool, England.  The purpose of the group is to deter young people from going down the path that leads to incarceration.

They do that by delivering "workshops designed to promote positive behaviors."

In today's reading from Psalm 30, we have a prayer, a plea to God for salvation and redemption.  It is structured though in a way that attempts to point out the value to God of saving us from ourselves.

If I am sent down to the Pit, it says, what good is that for you, God?

I like that.  It is really directed right at us, though, and not only at God.  For we are the ones who want offenders to be locked away, thrown into the Pit.  It is better for us, we argue.

Is it?

It is a simple solution to a real problem, and if we focus on ourselves, if we think only of our need for safety, locking away those who could harm us makes the "problem" go away.  For a while.

But from a practical standpoint, does it really make sense?

I am not advocating doing away with all forms of "correction," but I am asking what corrective action are we taking by locking people up in a place where most of the daily challenges of life are reduced to a simple formula of might over right?

If we want people to see the value of life, denying them access to it probably won;t help them at all.

Yes, ideally, it is better to avoid going down the path that leads to crime and incarceration, than to try to recover from the mistakes we make that send us there, but we don't always find a way out before we do something truly stupid.

Let's face it, when we do something wrong, we become poison.  No one wants to hire us, loan us money, let us vote, give us a chance, be our friend.

Extreme?  Not really.  We are the choices we make, and we have a hard time changing the minds of those we meet once they decide on a label for us.

So, we could say, "There but for the grace of God..."

But it is not God's grace that keeps us out of trouble.  It is our choices, and a heaping helping of pure luck.  If I do something wrong and don't get caught, am I less of a criminal than if I am charged and convicted?

So, as Jesus told the men gathered in the town square, "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."

What if we stopped casting stones, and started offering our time instead?

Let the skeptics offer their wisdom here, but I think it would be far more useful for us in our retirement to devote time each week to mentoring those who could benefit from our experience, than to pay wardens, guards and others to lock them up.

Yes, there is a risk involved.  But what is more important than saving a life?

I'm just sayin'...

More to come...