Having spent the majority of my adult life never having to actually report in for Jury Duty because my number was always previously dismissed, today was a different story.
Like any other person that gets the summons to do Jury Duty, I was apprehensive. Oh gosh, why now? How can I get out of this? Please, as I dialed the number the day before to see if I would have to report, have my number already be dismissed.
Lo and behold that wasn't the case. I had to report. I prayed that this decision would change somewhere in the night and I would be excused from having to serve.
As I called many times late into the night, hoping He answered my prayers that an update would occur so that my number would no longer be required to report, I heard that Still Small Voice say to me, "I want to teach you about My Justice". Yes, I had heard direct from the Mighty Shophet Himself. He wanted me to not shirk my responsibilities. I repented and promised Him that I would go in with a positive attitude and be willing to surrender to Him completely. No matter what the case, I would be a willing servant.
I reported early this morning, still apprehensive, yet knowing He was with me made a big difference. I had my crossword puzzle books,my Bible study materials and Bible with me, set for a long day at the courthouse.
Going through security was a breeze, other than my belt setting off the alarm, that is. Upstairs, check-in went quickly as well. I looked around the room and was surprised to only see anywhere from 30-50 people in a very large room. See the numbers that had to report started with 519 and went all the way through 3210. I was expecting a big crowd. Go figure... they don't use numbers sequentially. They must be rather random.
I felt a bit more at ease seeing the smaller number of folks, figuring it must be a quick civil case of some sort because otherwise the selection pool would likely be larger. While waiting I was learning that people were driving long distances to report in and felt a little selfish and foolish for my small drive in comparison. Just another way the Lord reminded me to remain humble and obedient to Him.
We all grabbed our cup of coffee and then the Jury Coordinator came in and told us that we would be watching a movie and then the judge would be coming in to speak with us.
We watched a movie telling us how "wonderful" and "rewarding" it is to be a juror. I snickered at the poor attempt at marketing, but actually did find some of the information rather interesting. They then proceeded to tell us what could be expected of a juror and the process we would go through. The movie ended and I was rather looking forward to the process at this point. I was fairly certain I was going to be selected, probably based on hearing from The Lord Himself that He wanted me to learn about His justice.
But to my surprise, the judge came in and told us, after introducing himself to us, that the case we were top have heard had been dismissed just seconds before. The DA had interviewed their star witness late last night and realized they would have to dismiss the case after the interview. I was, at this point, rather stunned and smiled knowing that we would be dismissed and yet show that we had fulfilled our duty, meaning we could not be called again this year.
Reality set in, however, as I was walking back to my car. I asked the Lord why He would tell me I was to learn about His justice only to come and find out I wasn't needed because the case had been dismissed before we ever started through the process. Then I started to think about whether justice had been served or not. Was this the Lord's way of serving justice? Did the eye witness do poorly in the interview because justice would be served by not bringing the case to trial, or did a criminal get let loose because a witness was suddenly having second thoughts or faded memories?
I still have unanswered questions about this one, but at least I feel better knowing I followed the Lord's prompting and fulfilled not only my duty as a citizen, but also submitted to obedience to Him. Now I just have to figure out how to reconcile the case dismissal in my mind. I am at the moment leaning that the Lord intervened and allowed freedom to a person that either deserved it or that would now turn their life around, realizing that God had intervened on their behalf.
Jury duty summons' in the future? Well one thing is certain, I will ask of the Lord, listen, and follow His lead, and not be near as apprehensive as I was today. We may not always have answers to the way things turn out in life, but we do have One we can turn to who does have the answers. We may have to wait a while to learn the answers, but we will get them eventually direct from the One who knows!
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