If you are new to reading my articles, then you may not be aware that in high school I was a HUGE “debate nerd.” The same adrenaline rush that comes to big athletes like Wade and Biles, would hit me as I was preparing to destroy my opponent’s argument and “wow” the audience.

My last debate of my high school career was one I was quite passionate about.

Resolved: In a Democratic Society Felons Ought to Retain Their Right to Vote.

I was stoked to shed light on such an important topic as felons (those who are currently serving time, and those who have finished serving their time) are often dehumanized and made invisible in society. For that reason alone, I was fired up and ready to defend the defenseless and be a voice for the voiceless.

A big component of my opponent’s arguments was that felons, even those who have served their time, need to pay for the crimes that they have been found guilty of. To this point I strongly affirmed that serving a prison sentence was indeed them paying for their alleged crime and that any other punishment after that was pointless and negated the purpose in even having them serve a prison sentence.

I let all of my anger, sadness, and mercy out in that debate to strongly affirm that felons ought to retain the right to vote, as voting is a huge part of being represented in society and men and women have fought relentlessly and still are fighting to preserve that right. Now 6 months later as I’m sitting in bed thinking back to that debate I can’t help but draw many parallels to other facets of our lives.

The most important parallel drawn is how we treat others and ourselves the way that society treats felons/ex-felons. As I sat in church this past Sunday I got a revelation that many people may not find profound. But it is that a sentence has already been served, a price already paid for our wrong doings. Yet we allow ourselves to get locked in the mindset that we must do something so grand to compensate for our sins.

We convince ourselves that the waters God has lead us to are streams of bondage and enslavement. We feed into the lies that what Jesus did on the cross wasn’t enough so we must make ourselves our own “Christ, the Redeemer” and perform some miraculous pardoning. Rather than streams of bondage and slavery, God has placed us in a tide of abounding mercy and forgiveness, and all he wants us to do is accept it and move forward.

A hypochondriac is “someone with an abnormal anxiety about one’s health, especially with an unwarranted fear that one has a serious disease.” So what it is called when someone has an abnormal anxiety that Jesus’ blood isn’t worthy enough to cover their sins? What is the act of striving to pay for something that has already been paid? Well in my debate I referred to it as pointless and unfair.

In Paul's letter to the people of Ephesus, he gives them good news after good news about the abundance of God's love and mercy. "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s gracethat he lavished on us" - Ephesians 1:7-8. That good news is for you and for me. It is for the "criminal" and the "law -abiding citizen." It is for the rich and for the poor. For the oppressed and the free. In God’s eyes there is no disenfranchised, marginalized, second class citizen. It’s time to stop looking at yourself the way society looks at felons (and to stop looking at felons as subhumans) and to look at yourself and felons/ex-felons the way God sees you.