How can we help long-time felons get paroled?

This was the question a group of law students recently asked before forming an organization dedicated to helping inmates gain their freedom.

Apparently there are a lot of inmates eligible for parole, but time and again they fail to get past parole boards because of inadequate preparation and poor interviewing skills. So this group of students arranged to coach eligible inmates during the weeks preceding their parole board interviews.

But the students kept running into the same problem: time and again inmates refused to admit guilt or take real responsibility for their crimes. The students couldn’t understand that even in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt, pride and years of telling themselves the same dubious story of Innocence had made it pretty much impossible for the inmates to change. And sympathetic parole boards, wanting simply to hear contrition and remorse, never did. So the next parole meeting was set for 5 years down the road and inmates were returned to their cells.

It was Friedrich Nietzsche who said, "People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed."

I wonder how often I buy into this.

On Sunday we will hear Jesus talk about something similar. The topic is hell - and C.S. Lewis famously described it as a place we’d rather stay in than give up our illusions.

But this is what the truth of the Gospel asks us to do.

When I look at my stubborn beliefs and behaviors I can't help but wonder how much is illusion I’ve cultivated to make me feel safe, comfortable, and at peace. I wonder how much is really a prison that I desperately want to leave, but only if the change isn’t too painful.

Admitting fault, owning mistakes, apologizing, and facing the music are things we all have trouble doing. And while they are often at the heart of what keeps us locked up, they are also the key to opening our prison doors.

How is Jesus calling us to greater honesty and transparent self-evaluation?

If the truth may hurt for a little while but a lie hurts forever, how are we being called to rip off the band-aid and embrace the freedom Jesus wants for us - and we want for ourselves?