at what price?

High and Low
“I pray to be like the ocean, with soft currents, maybe waves at times. More and more, I want the consistency rather than the highs and the lows.”
Drew Barrymore


Wednesday’s High

The telephone rang almost the moment I entered the office. 906 area code: the Upper Peninsula. I quickly grabbed the receiver. It was Ann and Bill on a speaker phone. He had been released on parole just one week ago, after serving 11 years on a wrongful conviction. The 60-year-olds sounded like newlyweds, laughing, giddy, excited. Bill was free. Their happiness was contagious. Our work seemed SO worth-while!

Tuesday’s High

The parking lot of this Michigan prison was very familiar. I had been visiting Pete in the same facility for the past several years. We pleaded our case before the parole board. We lamented the fact that he had spent 8 years behind bars for a crime that he did not commit. We prayed together, wept together, laughed together. This morning Pete walked out. He is officially on parole. Being there to witness this exit is one of the joys of this job.

Today’s Low

The happiness that I felt for these two men faded quickly, as reality crept to the top of my thought processes. How could one put a number on the price my two friends had paid?
EACH OF THESE MEN LOST A DECADE OF HIS LIFE FOR DOING NO WRONG!
Both were kind husbands and fathers, honest businessmen who had never been arrested, and were considered pillars in their communities and churches.
NOW
Both are ex-convicts, because of reckless lies and accusations. Both had to take courses they didn’t need, had to lie and grovel and show remorse before a heartless parole board. Careers were ruined, families were splintered, hearts were broken, and all because of just plain greed.

I pray that, in their lifetime, God will show them how these experiences were only the beginning: Bigger and better things will happen in their lives; and there’ll be exciting new ways that these dear men will touch the lives of others! It already began when their stories touched my life.

Doug

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