Someone's Praying, Lord (Matthew 9:37-38)

• You may not hear them, but they are praying. There are many, many men (and women) who are incarcerated and know they need help to change: change of heart evidenced by change of choices evidenced by change of words and actions - over and over again until the old, destructive ways are overpowered and swallowed up by the new.
  
• Admittedly, there are many who still refuse to admit their need for real change. "Change? Yeah, change would be good. I need to change my ways. (Meaning: I need to find something I can get away with...)" “I’m sorry” means “I’m sorry I got caught.”
  
• But we must admit that the "get away with it" mentality doesn't exist only in prison. There are plenty of us - "inside" and out - who find no problem with our own scams (and self-deceptions) until we are caught. Listen to any newscast for big examples: corruption, graft, embezzlement, falsification, cover-up... The worst news is that it's hardly even news anymore.
  
• And the small - and just as disastrous - examples are even closer to home: How many times (a day?) are we prompted to lie about a situation to make ourselves look better or to avoid an unpalatable truth? "Well, not really lie," we reason, "just cast the facts (and particularly that portion of the facts that we prefer and can best utilize) in a manner that limits our exposure to negative interpretation..." It's glibly called "spin". It's accurately called deception.
  
• Getting back to those (in prison specifically) who seek change - for real, for good, forever: They need help to imagine what change looks like, to hope they can change like that, to know the steps in the change they seek and to proceed in that direction. To be encouraged to try and to try again after they fail and keep trying. To believe it's possible and worth it.
  
• That's where you, Kind Reader, come in. Perhaps you know what Change looks like. Perhaps you have sought change. Perhaps you have seen real change in someone - even yourself. Or perhaps your heart has been broken by someone you love whose choices have ruined his life and the lives of those around him - or deeply affected even yours.
  
• You are therefore qualified for the following assignment. Look up the reference at the top of this post. Look at the verse preceding it. Can you see the crowds? Could you “feel compassion” for them as Jesus did (does)? Now, beseech the Lord of the harvest; Workers needed here!
  
• One bad friend can precipitate the re-ruin of someone getting out of prison (and his subsequent return to his “home away from home”). Similarly, one good friend correlates strongly with successful re-entry into simple, peaceful, productive life “outside the fence”.
  
• Pray for those friends for them, those mentors who can help them along, recognize when they are scamming themselves and others and call them on it. Show them love and normalcy. Encourage them to keep on. And prove they are worth the effort.
  
• Are you one of those friends?