I had an interesting experience today. I went to District Court to be a character witness for a friend in a messy divorce/custody dispute. While we waited for everyone to arrive etc, we sat in the courtroom and watched many other cases as they were heard by the judge. It's those cases that I wanted to comment about.Watching the people come up and plead guilty or not guilty and have their lawyers help them, it struck me how easy it was to break the law. Most of the people were there for driving with a suspended license, driving without insurance, driving with an unregistered vehicle and in a few cases, driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol.
In every case, the driver was pulled over for something other than they thing they were in court for. Anything from following too close to having a tag light burned out. The officer would soon find out that the drivers license was suspended etc. All of these were jail-able offenses! The judge was kind, and most of the time the people were sincere. In one case, a woman was accused of driving while drunk, and of following too closely. She is 23, has recently finished her teaching degree and was entertaining offers from several public elementary schools in the area. She almost threw it all away by getting drunk and trying to drive! Seems to silly. (I'm sure she'd agree.)
What's my point? Going there and watching the cases was an eye-opening experience. It made me examine parts of my life that I wouldn't have thought about. In this case, about driving. "I DO have a license plate light that is burned out. I am missing a front plate on one of my cars." If I was pulled over for those things, I'm fairly certain that I would not have to appear in court about something else they discovered...but still. Disobedience starts with the small things that you let slide.
Watch "To Catch a Predator" on Dateline NBC. I bet most of those guys can not believe that they were about to do what they were planning. They were tricked step by step...thinking that this little act of disobedience was ok, or that little rule breaking was justifiable. A few too many of those, and they're in prison!
I think I'll go watch a few cases every few months. Not to lift myself up above the accused, but to try and humble myself, and open my eyes to other areas of my life that might need attention. Seeing the wages of sin is a sobering thing.
6 comments:
I appriciate those thoughts. I had to go to traffic court when Sheely was tiny and I did not like it so much. The mood in there was so crabby and "justice"ish. It makes me want to never go there again :)
I saw that traumatizing Dateline thing. I felt so bad for the people. Even though what they were doing was aweful, I felt so sorry that they were in that place in their life. How did they get to such a low point? Anyway, my tail lights keep going out right after they fix them, and the airbag light won't go off. Unitl these things get fixed I get get the car registered. I drive in fear! On a lighter note, did you know we are coming to Maryland in Sept? Yay!
Hmmm . . . I think I remember you getting pulled over for not completely stopping on our road and then got in trouble because your license was suspended . . . Nonetheless, I think little things like that have happened to all of us. Sometimes I wonder how they let me on the road.
Yes, that was certainly me. When it comes to traffic violations, I'm not stranger. Maybe that's why I related. Am I a criminal at heart?
Nice post Matt. Gotta love going to court!
I believe there is a spiritual purpose for everything that occurs in our lives--something that we can learn to bring us closer to Heavenly Father. If we use them for their intended purpose, good for us. But we can miss the point and go off on a temporal tangent. Looks like you got the point and are making good use of the experience.
And all those people and their small and large sins against the law are living examples of the fact that we all need a Savior. And one who is merciful. Because none of us will get there if we have to face untempered justice.
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