Emphasis Preaching Journal

Lewis Smedes tells the story of going one hot summer afternoon to visit at the Los Angeles County jail. He watched pimps bailing out their prostitutes, lawyers interceding for their clients and drug dealers arguing on behalf of their peddlers. He thought to himself that all of these people could only be labeled the losers in society.

During the afternoon he decided to go for a walk. On the way out of the door he met a lanky black man wearing a dark suit and a clerical collar. He figured he must be a prison chaplain. They struck up a conversation. As it turned out the man was not a chaplain but an insurance salesman. He devoted one day a week to visiting the men in the jail. He used his distinctive garb so that everyone would know what he was doing.

Smedes forthrightly asked the man: "Aren't most of the men you meet inside this jail hard-core losers?" The man responded with these words:

"Well, maybe they are, but that's just not the way I divide people up. The only two categories of people I really care about are the forgiven people and the unforgiven people."

This man must have been acquainted with Jesus' parable about the waiting father and the prodigal son.
--Clarke