Issue 7, October 2008

I’m standing in a day room that is about 75 feet by 40 feet, and there are about 30 adult men packed into it. We are surrounded by concrete walls and steel doors, and iron bars are set over the windows. The building is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and razor wire with towers, and guards with guns stand in those towers.

Now, about 200 yards past the walls and bars and fences is a road with trees and grass and cars, and although that road is not in “plain view”, and I have to look past a lot of ugliness to see that, past all of it lies God’s beautiful creation full of green .. life, and .. love. It all lies just outside my window and just past my grasp! But by seeing it, I know it is still there .. all the beauty that God created is still there; all the goodness and humanity and love .. it’s right there. But why not when I look in the mirror or at the 30 or so men next to me — where is God’s beauty then?

We took it for granted, and now we can see it, but we cannot be a part of it. You know what? Th at road is just like the human spirit; a spirit within the 30 of us .. within all of us .. but in here we have to look past all the ugliness to see and acknowledge the beauty God created within us. Just like it is with that road.

That road I see represents Hope! A hope many of us have lost or forgotten about. Many of us cannot see past the bars and fences. Too many of us see only the ugliness within us reflected by our immediate surroundings.

I will only see the beauty God created when I look at my fellow man and I will point it out to him, so he can see it in the mirror for himself. If a man’s hope is lost, he must be reminded that God created it, and He can just as easily re-create it! He must keep hope alive and look past the bars and fences and hope and believe that God can bring him back to the road again.

Most people have a lot of messages and a lot of different experiences, but the one common theme is Hope, and God’s love and beauty. It is beautiful no matter where you stand, but it is much easier to see if the view isn’t obstructed by bars and fences and hopelessness bred by inhumanity. So when it comes to the human spirit being able to overcome the worst of situations, we believe any of us — anyone in the world in fact — can achieve success and change negative habits and thinking into a positive and life-affirming outlook and with the proper support, the fruits of that change into a positive outlook, and with the proper support the fruits of that change become even sweeter.