Johnny Cash - Greystone chapel - Live at Folsom Prison

To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the first and great commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness - especially in the wilderness - you shall love Him.

  - Frederick Buechner, A Room Called Remember: Uncollected Pieces

Image via Folsom Prison Museum

The Lord visited Folsom Prison, we know this for a fact.  His Grace inspired an inmate - Glen Sherley - to write this song.  Sherley was an unexpected landing pad for the Holy Spirit, having been in and out of prison since his teens, and was serving hard time for armed robbery.

You wouldn't think that God had a place here at Folsom ...

The Lord was busy even in the wilderness that was Folsom.

Johnny Cash had been recording songs about prison since the very beginning of his career.  His second song was Folsom Prison Blues, and he was a favorite of inmates across the land.  Sherley was one of these, and made a recording of his song there in the Prison.  He sent it to Cash, and the rest was history.  Cash rehearsed it the night before the concert and it was recorded on his Live At Folsom Prison album.  Sherley became instantly famous, writing songs for Eddy Arnold and recording his own album when he was released from Folsom.

But while Grace is infinite, a man has to reach out and take it.  It seems that Shirley couldn't do that.  Unable to handle the spotlight that comes with fame, he ended up shooting himself.  Spiritually he remained in that wilderness up to the bitter end.


In a sense, all of us are in a prison, a prison of our own making.  The lesson of this Holy Week is that prisons are not for the spirit, unless we will it so.  Grace is infinite, if we will only reach out and take it.

... but He saved the soul of many lost men.

Greystone Chapel (songwriter: Glen Sherley)

Inside the walls of prison my body may be,
But my Lord has set my soul free.

There's a grey stone chapel here at Folsom,
A house of worship in this den of sin.
You wouldn't think that God had a place here at Folsom,
But He saved the soul of many lost men.

Now this grey stone chapel here at Folsom,
Stands a hundred years old made of granite rock.
It takes a ring of keys to move here at Folsom,
But the door to the house of God is never locked.

Inside the walls of prison my body may be
But the Lord has set my soul free.

There are men here that don't ever worship.
There are men here who scoff at the ones who pray.
But I've got down on my knees in that grey stone chapel,
And I've thanked the Lord for helping me each day.

Now this grey stone chapel here at Folsom,
It has a touch of God's hand on every stone.
It's a flower of light in a field of darkness,
And it's given me the strength to carry on.

Inside the walls of prison my body may be,
But my Lord has set my soul free.