Baby Steps
I am learning that God often works both through us and with us in baby steps.
Let me tell you about an inmate, “John” with whom I meet weekly. He is in a unit reserved for inmates with more than one mental illness. Recently, the staff moved John to a more intensive level of custody after he cut himself with a razor blade to relieve his emotional pain and anxiety. The cut was so deep that it has taken months to fully heal.
John is now on medications which have side-effects of making him experience audio, visual and tactile hallucinations. For example, he complained to the officer that five inmates were in his cell even though he was alone. He felt cats licking his toes to wake him up even though they were not there. He could not distinguish between reality and fantasy.
One week he described his delusions to me. As I thought about it during the week, I got an idea! The next week, I asked him if hallucinations looked like images on a black and white TV. He agreed they did. When I asked him if everything else was in color, he agreed that it was. I proposed a simple test. If an image was in black and white, it was a hallucination but if it was on color, it was real.
When he reported back to me the next week that the test worked, I praised God that he used me to help John distinguish between reality and illusions. It had seemed to me that I hadn’t accomplished much the previous weeks.
God worked through me in baby steps to help John discern what was real. God worked with me to remind me that my work may have more significance than I can recognize. None of us can know the true significance of our actions and how God uses us in the lives of others.
Thanks for your prayers and contributions that make my ministry to inmates possible and the chance for me to share how God uses you in the lives of inmates.
Rip