Chaplain Knowles was my supervisor during my internship year at Stillwater Prison. He often told a story about three prisoners. One was a sneak thief, another a robber, and another was a rapist.

The sneak thief prided himself on his ability to steal. He said that many people he stole from didn't even realize they had lost property. He would often steal from wall safes. He said that people who keep cash in wall safes probably obtain the money illegally, or are keeping their earnings secret from the IRS. In this way he justified stealing from them. He often left stacks of money in the front of the safes untouched and stole from the rear of the safe so the theft would go unnoticed.

The sneak thief criticized robbers because they put people's lives in danger when they robbed them. He did no physical harm to the people he stole from, and didn't even harm the buildings when he broke in. Like many other prisoners he detested people who committed sex crimes.

The robber had no use for sneak thieves. He said things like, "when I rob someone, I look them right in the eye. I don't do things behind people's backs." He thought the sneak thief's methods were cowardly, and he also hated rapists.

The rapist considered both the robber and the sneak thief criminals. If someone were to suggest that he were also a criminal, he would respond by saying something like, "I'm not a criminal! I'm a lover!"

All three of them were convicted felons serving sentences in a maximum-security prison. They were very tolerant, if not down right proud of their own criminal behavior, but they looked down their noses at most of their fellow inmates.

I was surprised to find that prisoners were intolerant of their fellow prisoner's behavior. I thought they might have compassion or even admiration for others who like themselves lived outside the law.

When we are intolerant of others, I think Christ must be surprised. We are all sinful in His eyes, but we also most likely have a tendency to look at the sins of other and overlook our own sins.

Christ must have run into that attitude in His travels. In Matthew 7:3 he says, "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?" We would all do well to notice the logs in our own eyes.

No matter how ugly our sins are in our own eyes or in the eyes of our neighbors, Christ promises us forgiveness. In His eyes, none of us would ever measure up, but since He died on the cross and has paid for our sins, our slate has been wiped clean.

May the God of peace shower each and every one of you with a multitude of blessings.

Sincerely,

Pastor Birk