Timing | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Timing | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jay Dalton
09/17/14
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Perfect Timing
I witnessed a genuine application of love, the God-kind of love, at a unique place. It was the kind of love that the beneficiary has no ability to give a pay back, the kind of love that is not judgmental, refuses to be a self-appointed critic, and refrains from asking demeaning questions about the past. I saw tenderheartedness.
There is a rule at this place. A place of only resident men who all dress the same. The rule is this "nothing in, nothing out." No contraband of any kind is permitted "in." Everyone is carefully identified, screened, and must pass through the electronic security system and then be patted down. In like manner nothing leaves. No private messages, no phone calls, no private little favors are to be done. This is forbidden. This is nothing "out."
We pass the entrance of concertina wire, great high-standing fences, bleak institutional grey walls, and the ever watching eyes from the guards in the towers. There is an unsaid ominous feeling. This is a prison.
We come to this place of confinement to build a special kind of long-lasting union. We come united together as brothers from all walks of life, relinquishing our personal doctrines, our denominational preferences, focusing only on our common ground for this moment in time. We do this in faith for the love of Him who bore our cross.
Four consecutive days are scheduled, coupled with preparatory days of training. Anticipation grows as we wait for that first day of the four-day event. We call it, "a walk." The "walk" is done twice a year, spring and fall. There are also monthly follow-ups to solidify our efforts. We are committed. We do the time.
I have long desired to see some "one" truly change as a result of the message of love, the message of the cross. My desires were granted. I saw it. The change was obvious on the faces of the residents. Right before my eyes, I saw it. There was a metamorphosis of stone stares to countenances of joy. Their eyes became spiritually transformed to a hunger that stayed with them--a good breed of hunger. It came through prayer, kind words, food to soften the hardened souls, and home baked cookies, lots of cookies, like round sweet delights of grace hand carried, offering hope.
Kairos is a Greek word that means, "God's special time." It's God's special time to send, "something;" no one can earn it and no one deserves it. The "something" given has a name . It's called "grace." It arrives on "His special time." Kairos is the name of a nationwide prison ministry. I am grateful to have been brought to this ministry, this place of "kairos," this place of "grace."

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