I Was In Prison
Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer
Fifty years ago this February, Charles Colson’s powerful memoir of his conversion experience, Born Again, was published. The world was different back in February of 1976, but this is a timeless story of repentance and redemption. Watergate left a lasting impression on America and on Charles Colson. Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man” became a “new man” because of this experience. Charles “Chuck” Colson was facing arrest in 1974 when his friend, Thomas L. Phillips, gave him a copy of C. S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity. The ideas expressed in the book gave Chuck some real truth to chew on and set his feet on the path to the foot of the cross.
While many pundits decried his conversion as a ploy for a reduced sentence, Colson pled guilty to the charges against him and was sentenced to seven months in Alabama’s Maxwell Prison. In Born Again Colson wrote, “I found myself increasingly drawn to the idea that God had put me in prison for a purpose and that I should do something for those I had left behind.” And he did.
Colson emerged from prison with a new mission: mobilizing the Christian church for ministry with the incarcerated.
In 1976, he founded Prison Fellowship, which is now the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit equipping the Church to serve currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families, and to advocate for justice and human dignity both inside and outside prison. In recognition of his work among prisoners, Colson received the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1993.
Chuck Colson passed away April 21, 2012. His legacy continues, however, in the work of Prison Fellowship and in the lives of the many people his ministry has touched. (From Prison Fellowship website.)
Out of a political scandal that rocked the nation and caused the resignation of a president a man who had been an enemy of virtue became one who exemplified it.[1]
Charles Colson was hardly the first human to seek God’s favor through repentance. In fact, the Beloved Disciple John wrote a warning for us all to seek God’s face in confession of sin:
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. I John 1:5-10
We do not receive this forgiveness out of our efforts to repent, but out of God’s forgiveness and mercy. It is God’s character, not our efforts, that prompt His actions toward us (Ex. 34:6-7). In Romans Paul wrote, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31-32). We can count on His welcome when we come to Him in prayer seeking to face ourselves honestly and openly before Him. It is a benefit to our souls to meet Him daily ready to confess our sin and receive what He offers…forgiveness and purity. As the Psalmist said, “Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield” (Ps. 5:12).
Reflection Questions:
- Has God ever put you in a hard place to teach you or guide you to greater things for His kingdom? How has that experience changed your life?
- Martin Luther wrote, “You cannot keep birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” Or said another way you can’t stop temptations from coming at you, but you don’t have to invite them in. In light of that thought, do you spend time in self-reflection looking for things that separate you from God? (Remember that is what sin does, separate us from Him.) Are you in the habit of taking these sins to Him when they come to mind?
- When we confess our sin and receive His forgiveness, mercy, and purity, what do you think should be our response? Have you developed the habit of leaving them with Him or do you let them keep distracting you from what you have received through confession?
(Photo description and credit: Sam’s Furniture, partnering with American Wheelchair Mission sent a Serve Team to Vietnam in January 2026. One member, Phil Yates, sent us some powerful pictures from the trip. This one is of Phil in a cell at the “Hanoi Hilton.” Used with permission, photographer unknown.)
[1] Sources for this account of Colson’s conversion and changed life are Chuck Colson – Founder of Prison Fellowship and Charles Colson – Wikipedia. Two more interesting articles may be found at Chuck Colson: A Life Redeemed and The Story of Charles Colson: From the White House to Prison to a Life of Courageous Faith.
