Everybody, Always

men, inviting them to begin the adventure of becoming love themselves. I
realized in that moment Kabi probably knows more about Jesus and
forgiveness than most of us.
Was this how it was supposed to happen? Yes and no, I suppose. Kabi
had been responsible for unthinkable pain in other people’s lives and had
experienced tremendous loss in his own. He’s not a guy who’s
comfortable like me. He’s a guy who is desperate enough for Jesus that
he’s willing to make huge changes in his life. Does he have the
knowledge? Nope. Jesus chose fishermen who rarely got their nets on the
right side of the boat. By all accounts, even after they had been with Jesus
for three years, they still didn’t fully understand who He was. They were
imperfect, flawed, and had failed—sometimes big. I was reminded again
how grace never seems fair until you need some.
It’s hard to ignore that most of the people doing the talking from up
front are guys like me who seem pretty nice and are relatable. They make
us feel comfortable. Yet the people Jesus used more often were the ones
who had messed up big and were desperate like Kabi.
When Kabi was done baptizing the death row inmates, he turned and
walked deliberately toward me. When he reached me, he grabbed my
hands. He looked me in the eyes and said in a strong and kind voice,
“Bob, I forgive you.”
“Wait, what?” This took me by surprise.
Hold on, you’re the bad guy! You can’t forgive me, I was thinking.
You’re the guy who is a convict. You’re the guy who was wrong, who
failed, who hurt people, who caused tremendous pain. You don’t know
anything close to what I know about Jesus. I just heard you say a bunch of
stuff about Jesus that wasn’t even right.
But then I realized what was happening. We had just been reading
together what Jesus said to His friends about loving our enemies. Kabi
knew if I was his enemy, he couldn’t be perfect like his Father in heaven
was, and that’s what he wanted bad enough to do something about it.
In that moment, standing in the prison courtyard, I didn’t see a witch