Listen, listen, love, love

A seemingly simple instruction.

As volunteers participating in the retreat, our sole assignment is to “listen, listen, love, love.”  If you think that is easy, try it sometime.

We are in prison with men who earned their way into prison.  Most are tattooed, many on their faces and heads.  As a group, men in white are younger than volunteers and ethnically more diverse.  There is a larger percentage of people of color in prison than there are in the general population.

It is difficult to stay present during the retreat.  There’s so much going on.  We want them to accept the grace being poured out and to receive it the way it is intended.  Our wants get in the way of why we are there.

It’s difficult not to feel that we are better than they are.  After all, we are the givers; they are the receivers.

At team meetings throughout the retreat, we are reminded our job is not to convert anyone.  We are reminded we are no more worthy of respect and kindness than any man in white* present.  Our sole responsibility is to “listen, listen, love, love.”

*In Texas prisons, all inmates wear white.