I had a something very bizarre happen yesterday. Have you ever seen prisoners in your yard before? As in about eight large male prisoners, wearing black and white striped prison garb with orange vests on top of them like construction workers? Well, that is exactly what I found when I came home yesterday afternoon.

I pulled into my driveway thinking that what I saw about 30 yards away from me was the county lawn maintenance crew that I had seen about 6 months before. But as I habitually got out of my car to unlock our gate, I noticed the black and white stripes and that the flashing lights were actually two deputy sheriff vehicles. I kind of flipped a little on the inside and frantically called Daniel (not sure why this was my first thought) while waving at the deputy sheriff closest to me to be sure he was awake and saw me pulling into the safe haven called my home. I pulled up to the house and turned the car off and finally Daniel answered the phone. I told him what was going on and that I guess I just wanted him on the phone while they walked by the house.

I figured out that they were picking up trash along the road but since we had recently cleaned up our section of the road, they had nothing to pick up and thus were looking at my car that had just pulled into the driveway. We had also just finished tearing down the fence that provided the only sense of exterior security and so I suddenly felt vulnerable. I decided to stay put in the car because they were between me and the deputy sheriffs and I didn’t want to attract any extra attention to myself. The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? suddenly entered my mind and I briefly imagined that George Clooney and his two bandit buddies were trying to escape into the woodsy brush next to our house and used me as a hostage for their escape. Some of you might think that being taken hostage by George Clooney would be exciting, but not in the way I was envisioning it.

I snapped back to reality just as the last prisoner walked by. With Daniel still on the phone, I got out of the car and walked into the house. After telling him goodbye, I looked out the window and thought for a moment about the paradox of wisdom.

Wisdom, the common sense, respect my husband, protect my safety, and in general be wise kind of wisdom told me to act carefully, responsibly, and with caution which is basically what I did. But the loving, do unto others as you would want them to do to you, carpé diem kind of wisdom told me to greet them, thank them for their present service to our community, and share with them that they are loved and have purpose on this earth. I had just read in a book that morning about the crisis of fatherlessness in America and that 85% of prisoners grew up without a father to tell them how to be a responsible adult and leader in their families and communities. So I somehow wanted to communicate that in the brief encounter that I had.

I also thought about how the deputy sheriffs were just sitting in their cars watching these men pick up trash. If I was a prisoner, I would probably hate that, if not hate them. I wouldn’t see that their job was to simply watch me pick up trash and be on guard for a scenario like a young woman driving up to her home or one of my buddies trying to escape. I would think of them more like the coach that didn’t believe in you, made fun of you, made you run tons of lines and laps, all the while sitting on their butt and getting fatter by the day. There would definitely be a lack of respect.

I don’t know anything about those men. They could have been believers, I imagine they had good behavior to get the “privilege” to pick up trash on a beautiful spring day, and I’m sure they have people who love and care about them. But at the same time, I’m not sure I would have changed anything that I did except that in some ways, I wish I had come home an hour later.

I’ve felt similarly to this before when I’ve see a man’s car broken down on the side of the road and I’m by myself in the car. I want to help but it is not “wise” to be a woman alone in a scenario like that. And I agree. Just watch the news for a night. But sometimes I wonder in our everyday lives, when the risk is worth taking. As Christians, we tend to elevate significant risks of faith that make sense to us. As in being missionaries, or being a stay at home mom, or serving in the military. We praise people for the sacrifice they are making, we think they somehow are more spiritual than us, and promise to pray for them.

But what about the everyday life risks? The reaching out to your neighbor, forgiving someone who hurt you, sharing Christ in a conversation, or choosing to stay when running away would be so much easier. Jesus never promised a life of ease and actually spoke a lot about the risks of following Him. Sometimes the paradox of wisdom begs for further examination and questioning of the status quo. So I guess that’s what I’m doing. And I invite you to do the same.

For further reading on wisdom, just spend some time in the book of Proverbs. Or check out these few verses from Proverbs 10:9-14:

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, but a babbling fool will come to ruin. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.