Yesterday morning I went to court to defend myself against a traffic ticket that I had gotten back in February. Now most people would have groaned and moaned and just taken the fine, the points on their driving record, and left it at that, but I couldn’t because I knew that I was in the right. I had come to a complete stop, but the officer could not have seen that from the vantage point where he was sitting. The bottom line was that I knew I was right, and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me to prove my innocence.
Now Las Vegas has a unique court set-up. Here I was with my little traffic ticket ready to battle the District Attorney and sort of feeling like David and Goliath, but as I looked around, I realized what small potatoes I really was. The courts here puts everyone together to be heard, traffic court cases as well as a lot more serious crimes.
As I was waiting for my chance to be heard, I watched as people were pleading to the judge in cases like murder, lewd acts with a minor, home invasion, and the list went on and on. I felt sort of intimidated being there among all of those “other” people, but then I realized how true to life this really is.
We live among a sinful world but that doesn’t make us any better than anyone else. Sitting in that courtroom, I soon realized that a lot of those people in chains before the judge had the same opportunity that I had in life but just chose to take a different path. And like the day we will stand before the Lord in judgement we are all on the same playing field and will be judged the same, but the judgement we receive will be based on the life we live. There will be no different levels, there will only be judgement.
I took away two things from this courtroom yesterday. the first is that just like my refusal to lay down and give up, we need to become resolute in our resolve and continue fighting to make sure that we live a life that will enable us to face the Lord on judgement day and get our ticket to the Kingdom of Heaven. The second thing I take away from the experience is that we cannot look down our noses at people. As I looked around at those people in chains sitting in that courtroom, I wondered how many of them were innocent like me and were just waiting to have their time to prove it. I wondered how many of them could be forgiven by our real judge, Jesus, by just saying, “I am a sinner Lord, I accept you in my life as Lord and Savior and ask your forgiveness.” This simple act of asking for forgiveness shows us that the lord loves us all enough to forgive us no matter how serious our crimes. We’re all on the same playing field and have the same opportunity.
Forgive me if I rambled this morning, I’m just a little overwhelmed at how much life reflects the Bible. It’s so easy to take the events of life and see how they reflect the Bible, proving it’s wisdom. Thanks for hanging out with me this morning, and have the best day ever today.
I never thought of it that way before. I know the last time I was in a courtroom I was fighting for my life. Perhaps if we had boldness in our lives to “fight the good fight” we would all come out on top.
Fighting for your life?