It is difficult to say “yes” to a new thing when you are comfortable in the current thing. This poses an immediate problem in the Kingdom, because when God answers a prayer, it will often come in the form of an opportunity that you must say “yes” to. And when we are comfortable where we are, why leave?

I think about this because a sudden change of course in a person’s life can easily be viewed with suspicion. As we watch those in our circles sometimes suffer great defeats or moral failures, it is challenging for us to perceive them beyond that moment in time. As they say, “you are always 17 in your hometown”. We can become so familiar with people that it makes us uncomfortable and even suspicious if they ever begin to exhibit new or different behavior.

The irony is, those among us (including me at the very top of the list) who made a choice to change course only did so because of those great failures and seasons of consequence. That is what it took for us to say “yes” to the opportunity to chart a new course. The opportunity to choose to live as a citizen of the Kingdom is open to everybody. So why are we harsh with those who make that choice after a great fall?

I am certainly no scholar, but it seems to me that the idea of punishment and incarceration is to bring about correction to negative behaviors. I am also not a parent, but it seems unreasonable to punish a child even after the behavior has been corrected. If a child breaks a rule, and they receive punishment, do you then punish them again and again for the same behavior that stopped the first time they were disciplined? If I was a child and was spanked or received time out for things that happened weeks ago, I would most likely be confused because I probably realized what the time-out was for back then, but it doesn’t make any sense now. But this scenario is lived out by children who are punished without reason, and we as a society renounce it as cruel. So why do we do it to adults who break the rules?

If we incarcerate an individual because of negative behavior, and then they say “yes” to a new way of making decisions, and this change can be quantified with data, isn’t it unreasonable to continue to punish them in the same fashion? I understand de-escalation of consequences, with assistance and accountability. But to punish them for the purpose of rehabilitation, and then continue the same punishment once rehabilitation has occurred seems just as cruel and confusing as spanking a child once for misbehaving and then continuing to spank them over and over for the same incident.

Oklahoma is actively carrying out this injustice in two separate contexts. First, we hand down sentences of time in prison that are final and eternal. What motive to change does a person have when they receive a life sentence without any possibility of parole? Why should they behave or change? Secondly, when these people do change even without incentive, we still treat them the same way as we did when they hurt us. We still refuse to alter our perception of them from how it was when we were mad at them. So let me ask you: if we incarcerate someone they will change, and then they do, but we refuse to acknowledge it, are they in the wrong or are we? They did what we wanted them to do.

I’d like to share something out of love that I know will sting the ears of some: there are people in prison right now who have truly experienced a change in their heart, who have sentences that are far from over, and who God is going to release right in front of us, solely to expose the attitude of our hearts towards those who have called on Him and whom He has changed, just like the songs that we sing on Sunday mornings all over this state. He will do it simply because these people have hit the bottom, confronted themselves and called on their Creator to make them like Him. All because they finally said yes. So will we be there to celebrate them when these prodigals come home, just like our worship songs? Or will he hold them in suspicion and pass judgement on them for something they have already been punished for? WARNING: That is not how God has treated you.

The call of God to participate as a citizen in His Kingdom is for each of us. The prodigals’ lives obviously exhibit a sharper contrast between their past and present than others. Do we have a right to stay mad at them when God has forgiven them? I have learned that my greatest opportunity for investment is in something that God is clearly already doing. Do you take money and invest it in stocks that are going down, or going up? When God is doing something in a humans life and they are no longer the same, there is no better soil to sow into.

This moment in time is for all of us, whether we are the one in prison or the one who feels the pull to change the way they look at people. In both cases, all God needs in your “yes”. The Kingdom Jesus died to restore to us is made up of all kinds of people. And I think of the beginning of Bilbo Baggins adventure, when a pivotal moment was provoked in his life, and in considering his options, he asked Gandalf, “Will I ever return back home?”

To which Gandalf wisely warned, “I don’t know. But if you do, you will never be the same.”

Let those who we have punished choose to say “yes” to the Kingdom. And let the rest of us say “yes” to embracing them when they do. If we can agree with our “yes”, the State of Oklahoma will never be the same.