A King Washes FeetSample

Youth Prisons

“How are you feeling?”

“Great!” I squeaked out, a little too high to be totally convincing. Was I great? I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t been to a prison before, so I didn’t exactly know what to expect. I was enroute to a youth prison in Australia with a team of chaplain volunteers. The fear didn’t set in until I was going through security inside the prison— it was intense.

The warden walked us into a bare concrete room and shut the door. We were immediately swarmed by teenage boys who were honestly bigger than my father. The smallest was eleven, and the main chaplain immediately took him aside to check in on him, pray with him, and ask after his family.

I knew she was worried about him.

I whipped out a pack of playing cards and asked with more confidence than I felt, “Uno, anyone?” I strategically sat with my back against a wall, and the boys sprawled out in a half circle around me. They joked and jostled amongst each other and tried to tell me what they were in prison for, and I tried not to listen. Things escalated quickly as one of the young men stacked Draw Two cards onto another player’s hand, and I rolled out of the way as they scuffled on the floor, game forgotten.

The second youth prison visit in another state in Australia felt completely different. The boys were the same, but security was much more casual, and after some lunch and basketball hoops, we gathered a group of young men together in the chapel. We worshiped together, prayed, and unpacked some Scripture. Looking around, I had a moment of realization— yes, these teenage boys had probably made poor, perhaps even horrific choices. But their crimes didn’t determine their identity any more than mine did. They were still sons, loved by the Lord. Sons who had made bad decisions, but still beloved sons Jesus took pride in. He looked at them and saw future leaders, business owners, fathers, husbands, engineers, creatives, sports players. He saw young men He’d created to be uniquely strong, soft, easygoing, intense, intelligent, musical, sensitive. He saw sons.

How does God see me? Who did He make me to be?

“So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.” Galatians 4:7

Identity vs Behavior

We have long made the mistake of turning our actions into our identity. It’s a strategy of the Enemy to keep us locked into our shame. For example, the woman caught in adultery in John 8. The Pharisees wanted to stone her (as the Law required) as an adulterer. The Enemy called her “Adulterer.” But Jesus saw her differently. He didn’t condemn her but instead was able to separate her sin from her inherent identity and value.

When it comes to identity, there’s a difference between the voice of the Enemy and the voice of God. God says, “I forgive you, you are not your sin, and I believe in you to choose differently next time.” The Enemy says, “You will never change because you are your sin.”

What things in our own lives has the Enemy managed to convince us have become our identities forever? Lying? Mismanaging finances? Cheating? The labels that become our identity don’t even have to be sin related. We could have made “Pastor” our identity, or “Mother” or “Introvert.”

What are the areas of my life that the enemy has tried to convince me are my permanent identity? Who else have I labeled by their actions?

One of the main reasons we disqualify anyone from sitting down on the footwashing seat is that we’ve made their behavior their identity. When we’re able to separate someone’s actions from their inherent worth as Jesus does, we label them not based on their past, but based on God’s good future for them.

The Lord looks at those young men I met in prison, and He doesn’t call them “Thief” or “Gang Member.” He calls them “Son.” When we’re also able to separate someone’s behavior from their identity, no one will seem too scandalous to sit on the footwashing seat with Jesus.