Thanksgiving in quarantine!  How exciting!  Our dorm was officially put on lockdown about a week ago.  That means that the entire Indiana State Prison is quarantined.  It’s crazy!  Just when things were starting to move along good, everything comes to a grinding halt.  Our RWI instructor tested positive so who knows how that will affect the program going forward.  We don’t even leave the dorm for chow.  Our meals get brought to us.  Room service all the way, lol!  Anyways… enough about that.

     Thanksgiving.  What am I thankful for?  Regardless of my surroundings and circumstance, I’m thankful for freedom. Ironic?  Not at all.  I’m more free now than before I got arrested.  I was so hopelessly bound by addiction that freedom was an afterthought.  Everything in life revolved around getting and using drugs.  That’s the opposite of free.

Although there has been some bumps in the road and my time here hasn’t been perfect, I’ve tried to use this time to rebuild my relationship with God. And the Spirit of God is what truly gives us freedom. Galatians 5:1 tells us that Jesus Christ gives us liberty and freedom from the yoke of bondage. 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. I looked up the meaning of liberty in these verses. It literally means “not a slave”. I’m so thankful I’m no longer a slave!

Josh Blount

DOC #270649