From Prison to Peace
Kenny Johnson, Founder, This Sacred Space Foundation
Original date: Thursday, April 1, 2010

Download MP3 Audio File Here (16.1MB)

For thirty-one years Kenny Johnson's most fervent desire was to hear his name "ringing in the streets" as a hustler, thief, and pimp. Beginning in his early teens, he was arrested 37 times and spent the majority of those years in prison. Running parallel with that desire was a persistent seed of spiritual longing. In 1995, while still behind prison walls, Kenny experienced a spiritual awakening in the prison chapel with Gangaji, a spiritual teacher. She answered his most pressing question: "Do we have to wait until we die before we can receive God's Grace?" She replied, "Kenny, God's Grace is here now! You think you are a convict, you think you are your name, you think you are a black man. Kenny, you are none of these things." Instantly, he knew he would never be a thief again. But how do you re-enter the world outside without resorting to old weaknesses? How would he survive, and how would it be possible to maintain his newly-found experience of grace? We will explore how these questions are posed to many people returning to society from some truly horrible circumstances.

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