The Dithering of a District Diva

There are many reasons I elected not to practice criminal law or participate voluntarily in the American justice system.  A large part is, as a Christian, the whole charade of humans accusing and condemning the sin of other humans seems so utterly ridiculous it is almost laughable, but for the life-altering circumstances such judgments create. For one to become an accuser or condemner in good faith, she would have to completely remove from the realm of the possible even the slightest chance that she has committed the same or similar crime — except without ever getting caught.  Or even more bizarre, she’d have to ignore the possibility that she could ever commit such a crime under any circumstance. The weight of that level of morality, based on the psychic conclusions of what one is capable of doing, seems downright unbearable, if you think about it.

But that’s the funny thing about judgment: we don’t often think about it. When we judge others, we get to completely divorce ourselves from the context of another person’s life. We don’t have to walk a mile in his shoes or consider the possibility that, given the same or similar circumstances, we honestly have no idea what choices we would make. And forget about analyzing the choices we’ve made in our own lives that only by the grace of God nobody knows about.  When Christ went to save the adulteress from being stoned to death, He told her accusers, “Ye who is without sin, [not ‘ye who has never committed the specific crime of adultery,’ but you who have NO SIN] “cast the first stone.”  The honesty and self-reflection of the people in that crowd that day, the ability to put down their stones and walk away is both remarkable and admirable.  I fear such a crowd would not do that, today.  After all, our actions are, more often than not, wholly justifiable — unlike those other people.

Those other people, like Troy Davis. The state of Georgia executed a man last night for a crime he likely did not commit. The family of the victim Davis has been convicted of murdering was overjoyed that Davis’s plea for clemency was denied and expressed satisfaction with the legalized lynching of  Davis.  Twenty-two years after the victim’s murder, the family still carries a bitterness toward Davis and a hope that with his execution they could somehow get peace. What a very heavy burden to carry for such a long time. I pray the family will take Christ at His word, that they can lay their burden at His feet and find rest for their souls, that He would trade their heavy burden for His light yoke full of forgiveness, compassion, healing, and love.

Maybe we need a criminal justice system to keep order — though the exponential growth rate of the prison population, the astronomical profits of private prisons, and egregious recidivism rates proving the lack of serious rehabilitation efforts for inmates suggest anything but order. But what if we who are so bent on “God’s justice,” took a page from His book (preferably the one Romans 3:23 is on)? What if we understood first that each of us sins, and furthermore, in the eyes of God, according to Romans 6:23, each of us is worthy of death as a result of that sin we committed, today alone!  Would we cheer the deaths of the executed then?  Would we  condemn the Pontious Pilates who stood by in silence or the Jews who nailed our Lord to the cross and call them murderers with blood on their hands?  Or would we all take a moment to absorb the reality that we are all murderers with blood on our hands.  Each and every sin we have ever committed and will ever commit was a nail in the hands and feet of Christ, a spear in His side, and a weight on His shoulders as His mutilated body stretched unnaturally over a wooden cross.

It is easy to judge, to hope one gets “what is coming” to her.  It is hard and even painful to realize that but for the grace, mercy, and love of Christ we did NOT receive what we had coming.  In thankfulness, then, let us each stand with grateful hearts at the knowledge that God will never deny our pleas for eternal clemency.

Troy Davis exalted God in his last years, months, days, hours, and minutes.  All over the world, collectively, people sought out the face of God and knelt before Him in prayer.   We ought to ask ourselves: How many people will your life inspire to seek the face of God?

The “I Am Troy Davis” campaign was started to stir in each of us that in America, injustice can happen to any of us — “But by the grace of God, there go I.” It’s true, we are all Troy Davis.  And we are also Barack Obama. And Sonia Sotomayor. And Elena Kagan. And Clarence Thomas. And Antonin Scalia. And Kennedy And Ginsburg, Alito, Roberts and Breyer.  We are the State of Georgia, we are the jury, we are the prosecutor, we are the defense.  Our lives are a consistent cycle of judging and being judged and standing idly by.  ENOUGH.

What if the death of Troy Davis, the stench of injustice that permeated every crevice of this country, was enough to wake us up to the reality that this world is not how Christ intended for us to live?  What if it was enough to jerk us awake, to make manifest the kingdom of God on earth through the hearing, reading, and DOING of His holy word?  What if we each got busy being about our Father’s business, to live the life we were called to live — a life indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit?  How many hearts around us would soften? How many around us would fall to their knees and seek Christ? How many laws would be repealed and how much torture and cruel and unusual punishment would end?

We are doing our Lord and this whole world a disservice with our silence. We bury our gifts for shame or fear of the weight of responsibility.  But we were meant for greater things, you and I, and the greatest purpose any one could have is to live a life that glorifies Christ in whatever way we have been created to do so.  Every second we don’t, we allow sin to rule and souls to be lost. We hold the needle to execute this world, or we stand idly by and watch.  With boldness through the Holy Spirit, call out and stop the killing, the hatred, the hurt, the devastation and emptiness in this world. Breathe and speak life into every dead thing.

Will you walk in your purpose today? If you don’t know what yours is, will you seek God’s face and not leave without an answer?

Donate $11.08 to the Innocence Project in honor of Troy Davis and keep fighting to end the death penalty. #NotGuiltyByGrace

“We’ll understand it better, by and by”

Davis Sisters – By And By from james one on Vimeo.

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