Encouraged through Trials

Back in March I told you about our family doctor (Phil) who had a son (John, 14 yrs. old) with cancer. John died yesterday morning after his bone cancer spread to his lungs. Typically you would think this is a tragic event. In the flesh, it is. This family has grown so spiritually minded about this that it's unlike anything I've ever seen. It's obvious that they've grown in the Lord. We've grown just reading the updates about John. The post on his web-site from yesterday announcing his death read:

John died this morning. For some reason Laura and I couldn’t sleep so we sat up and dozed on and off in the living room with John. He was sleeping more soundly than usual and suddenly he woke up bright and excited and said, "I’m going home now. It’s awesome. I’m going to be with Jesus." He was so happy about it. Then he fell into a restless sleep and died peacefully several hours later. God is so merciful.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7,8) Way to go John. I’ll see you in heaven.

Thanks for you prayers....Phil

Phil then posted again after that to convey funeral arrangemnts (times, locations, etc.) and said:

God’s peace is flooding our home.

What a testimony. If you have time, read back through some of their updates on the web-site. It will encourage and challenge you (and probably make you cry).

Blessings.

Tookie to Meet His Maker

As of 9:00 PM EST, Stanley 'Tookie' Williams will be executed at 3:01 EST on Tuesday morning at San Quentin State Prison. His only hope to receive an extension is through an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that was filed this evening. Things look bleak for Tookie. I have mixed feelings about this whole situation. There has been a lot of controversy over his death sentence. He has had a lot of media coverage in the last few months. In case you haven't watched or listened to the news recently and don't know who Stanley 'Tookie' Williams is, he is one of the founders of the street gang 'Crips'. The Crips, since it's conception, have been blamed for murders that number into the thousands, rapes, burglaries, vandalisms, etc. Tookie was convicted of murdering four people in two separate hold-ups in 1979. He has always denied the murders, despite the many witnesses that have testified on the contrary. Even after his arrest and imprisonment, he was very violent, attacking guards and other inmates. It was years later when he was in solitary confinement that he was given a dictionary and a Bible. This is when Tookie's life changed. This is where Tookie met redemption. He began to speak out against gang violence. He wrote several anti-violence children's books and was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. As if this wasn't enough to get him clemency, he has a whole group of celebrities crying out to spare his life. One in particular is a grown man that goes by the name of Snoop Dogg. Mr. Dogg is a proclaimed member or former member of the Crips. He has nothing but praises to speak about Tookie. Snoop Dogg is a gangster rapper whose songs are filled with gangster sex, gangster violence, gangster drugs and alcohol (so I hear). Obviously Mr. Dogg could stand to read Mr. Tookie's children's books. Doesn't make much sense that a gangster thug would turn out to be one of Tookie's biggest advocates. Those that oppose his execution do so because they claim he has reformed his life and that he can do more good alive than he could dead to help stop gang violence. That's one argument. What about the flip side. Let's say Tookie received clemency and got his sentence reduced to life in prison with no chance of parole. Now every gang member who commits a heinous crime like the ones Tookie is convicted of and gets caught has a map to follow. Get to prison, get redeemed, write a children's book and speak out against gang violence and you have your life spared. If he gets executed, it also sends a message. You do the crime, you pay the price. This is where my feelings start to get mixed. And it gets deeper. As Christians, how do we deal with the death penalty. Do we take someones life (not necessarily Tookie) who hasn't chosen to accept the Lord's redemption? He's had his opportunities, right? I know there are prison ministers. Certainly he had his opportunity. What if he “claims” he's been redeemed? Do we spare his life? And continue to pay for his meals and warmth? I can't justify that. Do we release him back into society on good faith? That would be insane! I know the “grace folks” and the anti-death penalty people say that we need to forgive and forget. I have no problem with forgiving if someone is remorseful. Then we need someone who can judge the depth of someone's remorse. Is it genuine? If we forgive, then what. Then release back into society? Once again, I think it's crazy the way we keep people locked up in prison for years and years while we pay for their food, clothing, air conditioning, recreation, cable TV, lawyers...you get the idea. But what do we do with these people. Even if I did not agree with the death penalty, I need to respect the laws of the land, correct? I'm not saying that I would be the one injecting the lethal poison into his body and say that I was just doing my job. I'm saying that if I or someone I know/love committed a crime that carries the death penalty, I need to be prepared to accept that punishment. Whether I'm saved or not.

What I can relate this to on a personal level is my wifes uncle. He lived like the devil for many years of his life. When he reached forty something, his body began to show signs of his past lifestyle. It began to shut down. He came to know the Lord about a year before he died. His body was already wasted. He lived a reckless life knowing what the consequences could turn out to be. God sentenced his body to death; a painful gruesome death. When he found redemption, God did not hand him down a reduced sentence. He had to pay the pre-determined price he had committed to pay. Tookie knew what the crimes he was committing could lead to. By committing those crimes, he committed to pay the price the law of the land determined any murderer to pay; life for life. Because he found redemption, do we hand him down a reduced sentence, or does he pay the price he committed to pay? Do we change in mid-stream because the circumstances "appear" to change? In Jesus' parable about the laborers, the workers who contracted to work all day for a penny wanted to change thier pay when they realized that others were hired to work for an hour for that same penny. Circumstances around them changed, but that didn't change what they already committed to.

I don't claim to be pro-death or anti-death penalty. I'm kind of a fence sitter here. I feel the legal and prison system is way out of kilter, but I don't have the answers to fix it. I hate to funnel money into people if they are going to sit in a prison cell, but I certainly don't want a hardened criminal released back into society.

Once again, I don't know if execution is the right answer. And I also don't claim that our system is a flawless system. I feel that Tookie needs to pay the price he committed to pay when he carried out the murders. If this makes me a hard person, then I guess I'm a hard person. I don't see any other choice. Just thank God that Tookie had the opportunity to find redemption and pray that he truly knows where true redemption comes from. Only Jesus can set us free. He has redeemed each of us, we just need to claim it. Let's hope Tookie has. And let's hope this doesn't turn into another Rodney King race riot in LA. We'll see.

God Bless!