Elias, a former inmate at a maximum-security prison in New York, described feeling as a prisoner. He was in the moments of his greatest failure and he believed it’s too late, that he lost the chance at a life of purpose and worth. He enrolled in the Bard College’s “Prison Initiative” college degree program that began to transform Elias’ life. While in the program, he participated on a debate team, which in 2015 debated a team from Harvard—and won. For Elias, being “part of the team . . . was a way of proving that these promises weren’t completely lost.”
A similar transformation happens in our hearts when we begin to understand that the good news of God’s love in Jesus is good news for us too. It’s not too late, we begin to realize with wonder. God still has a future for me.
And it’s a future that can neither be earned nor forfeited, all on God’s extravagant grace and power “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”(2 Peter 1:2–3)
A future where we’re set free from the despair in the world. “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:4); “that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21)
Sometimes in the ways I’ve disappointed myself and others, the ways I’ve broken the future I’ve dreamed of. Jesus, help me to see the unchanging beauty of the future I find in You._____________________________________________________________________