Isolation

Ecclesiastes 10:18  By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

We have all heard the fateful cry from our children – and sometimes uttering it ourselves – there is nothing to do! Of course there is something to do; we just don’t want to do it.

But what if that were really true, then what WOULD we do?  Over the past few weeks, I have been reading accounts of Christians incarcerated in some of the worse conditions imaginable.  Many have been placed in solitary confinement.  Let us think about that for a while.

That kind of confinement is just what it means, the prisoner is all by themselves with no contact with the outside world and no human being to interact with outside of the guards.  The person is in a small cell.  Many times the guards do not even speak to them other than giving them curt and blunt orders – no human touch other than the cruelty a guard may impose.  Often times they are denied anything to read let alone a radio or television.  Some prisons will allow them out of their cells for a specific period of time to ‘exercise’ but that is all and the time is limited, sometimes an hour a day, sometimes much less. They are in complete isolation.  All they have are their thoughts; if they have not been mentally prepared, they will go downhill fast!

One of the first things I was told, and quickly learned, when running our jail was the prisoners need to do something – even if it is just watching television.  If we left them to their own devices mischief transpired and Corrections’ officers were in danger.  We didn’t have an exercise yard, and other than tv there wasn’t much for them to do.  Fortunately we had a small jail and our inmates didn’t stay there for long periods of time – for the most part the jail was safe and the inmates weren’t violent.

I have always known that good food helps keep people happy and the cooks we had did a good job of keeping the inmates happy. The CO’s were good officers; they knew how to treat people with respect.  That also makes a difference in the inmates’ attitude – ‘most’ of the time.

The populations of our jail were local men for the most part, many of whom visited us often – sometimes it was like old home week when we booked them in.   We had one cell for women, but it was not an ideal situation for them and we seldom held women for very long periods of time.  However, I remember one woman we held for several weeks.  With no recreation area she was stuck in that cell, and we rarely could let her out.  We were a small department with limited personnel so we could not spend a lot of time with her.  She had no visitors, so she had no outside contacts.  One day as I watched her come out of the cell I realized that she was in a horrible mental condition, she had deteriorated in her time with us. 

Frankly there wasn’t much we could do, and fortunately she left us within a couple days – can’t remember if she had served her time or was transported to prison.  Our officers were not cruel, they did not try and deliberately make things difficult for her, actually just the opposite they tried to make additional time for her, but I was ashamed of how we treated her.  It was shortly thereafter we were sued and we had to make a lot of modifications in our jail and procedures – one of which was an outdoor recreation area.  I had developed a five year plan to address these issues, but the lawsuit helped get them done much quicker. It was expensive and unfortunately the county had to cut back in other areas, but it really was the humane thing to do. 

But our Christian friends who are incarcerated in other areas because they are Christians are not so fortunate.  They are beaten, served poor quality food, placed in filthy conditions, deprived of kind human contacts and medical assistance.  Many are tortured by the sadistic guards just because they are Christians.

While many are thrown into prison without warning, they have God’s Holy Spirit with them, comforting and communicating with them.  One of the themes that seems to play out in almost all of the testimonies I have read is that the Word of God they have hid in their hearts makes the difference.  They remind themselves of the promises of God, of the strength that comes from Him.  It uplifts their hearts when they repeat verses back to God in worship, show of dedication and love relying on the promises in those verses to help them through each long day and long night. Days, weeks, months and even years in the same condition.

They have prepared themselves for something like this by reading God’s Word, by memorizing scriptures, by a continual communication and contact with God throughout their lives.  They have not spent all of their time in idleness, they have set aside time to specifically spend with God.  Even though they may never had thought they would have to leave their Bibles behind, they prepared themselves by listening and learning God’s Word.

Psalm 119:160-162 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

¹⁶¹ Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.

¹⁶² I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.

Most Americans have no idea what isolation is, let alone what it can do to a person.  Oh they have some indications when their cell-phone, ipad, computer or other technical devices crashes. Many actually panic – they have a difficult time handling that kind of ‘isolation,’ which really isn’t isolation, they are usually surrounded by people but have forgotten how to communicate one on one.  We get an indication of what it is like in those o-dark-thirty mornings that satan uses to try and discourage us and we feel all alone. 

But to be totally isolated, alone, with our thoughts rarely occurs and when it does it isn’t for long.  But long periods of isolation can happen to us, it doesn’t have to be in a jail cell, it can be where our communications skills have been removed from us by illness or accident.  We can’t see or hear, we are in a ‘zone’ of silence where we are left alone with our thoughts.  And we know it can and does happen to people.

There are many forms of isolation that may not include any of the above, for some reason we just feel alone, feel isolated from everyone, in all of these times God’s Word can lift us up; it can recharge and energize our hearts and souls.  It can guide us through our depression and show us the path to follow to crawl out of it. 

When we have God’s Word in our hearts He brings the verses we need to our minds and the promises He has for us to make and keep our Joy full.  But the only way that happens is for us to know His Word.  If we are slovenly in our studies of His Word then our spirit suffers, and our whole life decays as a building decays and falls down from disrepair.

We may never have to give up our Bible; but we should study as if we will have to give it up.  Then if something does happen where we are truly isolated, God’s Word will still be with us, His Holy Spirit with bring it to the forefront of our minds and we will have comfort in it.

We need to be prepared for the possibility of losing our ability to read God’s Word.  We need to not sit idly by thinking we will always have this great treasure – and start using it, NOW.  As we need to keep our mind and body active, so too do we need to keep our soul and spirit freshly fed and growing.  Dad :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous