FINDING JOY ON DEATH ROW

Williams recounts his time preaching the Gospel on death row and the lessons he learned that transformed his own life.

When the author was offered an opportunity to minister to inmates awaiting execution at Central Prison in North Carolina in 1986, he was no stranger to providing religious counsel to the incarcerated. However, he found that death row was a very different experience—partly because, contrary to his expectations, the prisoners were not only troubled by despair and fear, but also a “desire to hold and express freedom of heart and mind.” He found that they were capable of experiencing real joy—a condition, the author notes, that’s profound and lasting, and not merely a fleeting emotion: “Joy is firmly grounded as a principle of God’s engagement with humanity.” Partly as a result of his prison work, he says, he underwent his own spiritual transformation, as he came to see his desires for notoriety and recognition as obstacles to his own joy. In this book, Williams presents readers with a poignant and moving account of his searching discussions with death row inmates about weighty issues, such as spiritual freedom, debilitating anger, healing prayer, and the possibilities of forgiveness. For example, one prisoner, who was convicted of burglary and murder, was haunted by the possibility that the latter crime put him beyond God’s mercy. Williams also effectively reflects on his own life and the trials that, for a time, erected barriers to joy; he tells a story of his sister, Genevieve, who, during an episode of mental illness, murdered his beloved father and attempted to kill his mother in 1976—a frightening account, conveyed with great power. The author includes prisoners’ handwritten responses to his sermons—thoughtful cogitations by men and women who’ve done terrible things and have also suffered terribly. Overall, it’s a captivating memoir, unflinching but hopeful, and written with resounding lucidity.

A stirring meditation on the spiritual promise of joy.