Humility the Hard Way
Chuck Colson writes of being invited to preach at tough old San Quentin Prison, an opportunity he greatly anticipated and carefully planned for. Three hundred of the 2,200 inmates had agreed to come to the chapel to hear him. But just days before his arrival, officials uncovered a hidden cache of weapons, and the prison was immediately locked down with inmates confined to their cells.
When Colson arrived at the prison chapel, he was disheartened to find that only a handful of men were able to be present, and they were mostly Christians. His spirits flagged, for he had so hoped to preach the gospel to the unsaved. Struggling with a lack of enthusiasm, he thought Maybe I’ll just give a short devotional, ten minutes or so. I can’t really preach my heart out to this crowd.
But spotting a video camera in the far end of the room, he said to himself, Maybe this is being recorded for the chapel library. Maybe I’d better give it my all. He felt convicted for basing his morale and mood on the outer circumstances rather than the inner impulse of the Spirit, and so he preached with great fervor, as though a thousand inmates were listening.
Later he mentioned to the prison chaplain how disappointed he had been to have missed sharing the gospel with the three hundred men who had originally signed up to attend. “Didn’t you know?” asked the chaplain. “Because of the lockdown, the administration agreed to videotape your sermon. They’ll be showing it to all the inmates tomorrow on closed-circuit television in the morning and again in the afternoon.”
In fact, the sermon was aired not just twice, but nearly a dozen times over the following weeks. Because of the lockdown, not just three hundred but all 2,200 prisoners heard the gospel.
Colson said that he learned three lessons from the incident:
• Mother Teresa is right. God calls us to faithfulness, not to success.
• When our goal is to change society, we often fail. When it is simple obedience to God, He blesses our efforts more than we can envision.
• We should not grow weary in well-doing, for we shall reap a harvest if we faint not.
Do not want or envy too much today. Think about what you already enjoy.
Michael