Juries & Worries
Two words. Jury summons. It was pinned up on my phone-message board for a couple of weeks. The day was getting closer. I didn’t want to be on a jury. Thoughts of serial murderers and corporate tax evasion assaulted me every time I passed that piece of paper on my wall. Will I have to decide the fate of some criminal? That word “criminal” hung in the air like an internet pop-up.
So, I got there Monday morning to find that it was a civil case, I wasn’t selected and it was about some car accident. Everything I had been dreading was deflated as the six jurors held their hands on the Bible and were “sworn in”. The registrar asked them whether they had any objections to swearing on the Bible, and I thought about Jesus saying, “let your yes be yes and your no be no”. I wondered if that was what he was talking about. Probably not. But it was strange to leave the courtroom so changed. Beforehand: I was sure that I’d be seated in the jury with a criminal in the witness stand just a paper-airplane’s throw away from me. Afterward: Just looking for the nearest phone to call my wife. Before – dread. After – no big deal.
In thinking about this drastic switch, I can imagine Future BJ talking to Past BJ. Past BJ says, “oh man… Jury duty… I’ll be sequestered for months, swarmed by the press and have a nervous breakdown after being selected as the chairman of the jury responsible to bring everybody to a unanimous decision!...” Future BJ will then slap Past BJ saying, “Pull yourself together man! It won’t be anything like that. Patience young aphid – your forgetting something.” What was I forgetting?
When Christ commissioned his disciples to go and prepare the way for him, he told them not to worry about what they would say when delivered to the courts, “For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak.” He said. (Matt. 10) The principle is the same with all believers – reborn, new creations in Christ, placed into the Body of Christ by the Spirit. The very places where worry can most easily seep in are those where the supernatural workings of the Lord are most clearly manifest. This is a constant theme here on “ThreeThirty”, but it cannot be overstated. It certainly isn’t said enough.
Because Jesus either meant what he said throughout, or he’s wrong altogether. He talked about a spring of living water flowing out of a heart – the very Spirit of God living in all those who receive Jesus by faith. If we are on our own, with a little help from God now and then, why did Jesus die and rise again? No, we are not alone. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, God has taken up residence in me. It’s humbling. He’s in me when I am at my most human. He’s in me when I sin. I use His hands when I drive. I use His mouth when I speak. I am not my own, I was bought with a price. Jesus was that price.
This post seems really convoluted today, but I hope you get this sense of belonging to something much bigger than yourself. I would not have been alone on that jury. Christ would have been there. He may have wanted me there. I’m thankful to him that I’m not, but still, I’d have to be just as thankful if I was. No worries. I think gratitude displaces worry pretty quick. Lord, don’t let me forget that I was once no better off than my imaginary criminal. Thank you Jesus.
BJ
So, I got there Monday morning to find that it was a civil case, I wasn’t selected and it was about some car accident. Everything I had been dreading was deflated as the six jurors held their hands on the Bible and were “sworn in”. The registrar asked them whether they had any objections to swearing on the Bible, and I thought about Jesus saying, “let your yes be yes and your no be no”. I wondered if that was what he was talking about. Probably not. But it was strange to leave the courtroom so changed. Beforehand: I was sure that I’d be seated in the jury with a criminal in the witness stand just a paper-airplane’s throw away from me. Afterward: Just looking for the nearest phone to call my wife. Before – dread. After – no big deal.
In thinking about this drastic switch, I can imagine Future BJ talking to Past BJ. Past BJ says, “oh man… Jury duty… I’ll be sequestered for months, swarmed by the press and have a nervous breakdown after being selected as the chairman of the jury responsible to bring everybody to a unanimous decision!...” Future BJ will then slap Past BJ saying, “Pull yourself together man! It won’t be anything like that. Patience young aphid – your forgetting something.” What was I forgetting?
When Christ commissioned his disciples to go and prepare the way for him, he told them not to worry about what they would say when delivered to the courts, “For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak.” He said. (Matt. 10) The principle is the same with all believers – reborn, new creations in Christ, placed into the Body of Christ by the Spirit. The very places where worry can most easily seep in are those where the supernatural workings of the Lord are most clearly manifest. This is a constant theme here on “ThreeThirty”, but it cannot be overstated. It certainly isn’t said enough.
Because Jesus either meant what he said throughout, or he’s wrong altogether. He talked about a spring of living water flowing out of a heart – the very Spirit of God living in all those who receive Jesus by faith. If we are on our own, with a little help from God now and then, why did Jesus die and rise again? No, we are not alone. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, God has taken up residence in me. It’s humbling. He’s in me when I am at my most human. He’s in me when I sin. I use His hands when I drive. I use His mouth when I speak. I am not my own, I was bought with a price. Jesus was that price.
This post seems really convoluted today, but I hope you get this sense of belonging to something much bigger than yourself. I would not have been alone on that jury. Christ would have been there. He may have wanted me there. I’m thankful to him that I’m not, but still, I’d have to be just as thankful if I was. No worries. I think gratitude displaces worry pretty quick. Lord, don’t let me forget that I was once no better off than my imaginary criminal. Thank you Jesus.
BJ
posted by BJ at 1:52 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home