Psalm 119:67 Learning Curve

I've heard it over and over again in the prison chapel.

"Getting sent to prison is the best thing that ever happened to me."

Most people who have never been inside a prison would consider that statement absurd. Surely no one would actually say such a thing.

Most of the people inside prison would agree. They hear one of their fellow inmates say this and they just shake their heads. Absurd.

But for some, it's true.

They were on a freeway to destruction. The road to perdition is paved with the freedom to follow your worst inclinations.

Prison is where that road ends. The highway patrol has chased you all over the backwoods of your life and finally pulled you over in a dark alley. There's no more freedom, nowhere else to go. Except rock bottom.

They've been brought low. They been humbled. Everything they've been relying on for life has failed them.

And they're ready to turn to God.

For many, it's a return to God. Every time I ask the question in the prison chapel, the majority raise their hands and say Yes, they went to church when they were kids. Someone, a parent, an aunt, a neighbor, a friend, invited them to church and introduced them to an ordinary volunteer Sunday School teacher who planted seeds of faith in their hearts.

And now, when they've wandered from their faith and hit bottom, those seeds sprout.

"Getting sent to prison is the best thing that ever happened to me."

They turn back to God, they praise Him, and they glory in the very idea of grace and forgiveness. Their hearts leap with the joy of promised transformation.

They're ready to listen, to learn.

I tell them, you're right. This is the best thing that ever happened to you. But it won't last.

If they don't grab hold of that joy and combine it with the training of spiritual disciplines, it won't last.

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.

Psalm 119:67

Affliction can be the beginning of a new life, the trigger that prompts transformation, the turning point in the journey.

But only though the discipline of the Word will that transformation find its true, sustainable form. And only by talking to God about the new road you're on will the traveler maintain focus on Him.

Suffering alone will either crush a person or motivate them. Suffering + God's Word + Relationship with the Lord will transform them.

And it will be good.