By now many of you in Central Florida are aware of the recent murder trial of millionaire developer Bob Ward, who shot his wife in the face from a distance of eighteen inches. He was found guilty in September and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for second-degree murder. At his sentencing hearing Friday, one of his daughters said, "Justice for my mom is not locking my dad behind bars for the rest of his life. It's giving our family a second chance." I was struck by that comment, because a daughter who has suffered is so clearly mistaken about what justice is and, having lost her mother, must now have her father taken away as well.
A great deal of confusion arises in our society today, and even in our faith, because we blur the meanings of words. Imprecise use of words can also affect how we interpret Scripture. In the case of suffering caused by sin, we must clearly define forgiveness, punishment, restitution, and revenge. Since we are dealing here with a case of crime and punishment, let us first look at what this means.
Sinful behavior may result in many consequences, such as alcohol abuse leading to cirrhosis or smoking leading to lung cancer. However, in situations where God has ordained authority of one person over another, such as the criminal justice system or the parent-child relationship, the concept of justice truly applies. It usually has two components, punishment and restitution. Punishment is the applied penalty or consequence for the offense. If you rob a store, you go to jail. If you lie to your parent, you may get a spanking. Justice is indeed served when offenses are punished, and it is important that offenders experience those consequences. In situations where there is no God-ordained authority, then we are not allowed to punish others ourselves. If you are a friend and lie to me, I am not allowed to spank you.
We speak of a criminal who has commited a crime as having now created a "debt to society," which must be paid by undergoing punishment. This is a nice metaphor but not correct. There is no person named "society" and there is no way to "pay" for some crimes to society or anyone else. Bob Ward cannot "pay" his wife or anyone else for killing her. In some cases, however, people can make restitution for losses they caused someone, as in repaying money that has been embezzled. In no case, either those with God-ordained authority or without, are we allowed to exact revenge. Vengeance belongs solely to the Lord. (Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19)
Forgiveness, our last term, has several definitions; to pardon, to cancel a debt, to cease to feel resentment. And it is certainly possible in rare circumstances for someone in authority to pardon an offender, although if this was done in every case, then there would be no such thing as punishment. And we as individuals could forgive or cancel a criminal debt, such as ceasing to seek restitution. Ceasing to feel resentment frees us from letting someone else's behavior control how we feel. And since forgiveness is such an important spiritual topic, I will discuss that on a later post.
Let us return to the case of Mr. and Mrs. Ward. Bob Ward shot his wife in the face at point-blank range, and for that the State of Florida criminal justice system must obtain that justice and punish him. He must experience that consequence of his actions by doing time in the penal system. ("Penal" and "penalty" come from the Latin word poena or "punishment".) The "family" does not get to define what constitutes justice in this matter; they do not have authority over him to decide to punish him or pardon him. They can certainly forgive him and cease to feel resentment towards him. It is sad that the family will have to experience the consequences of Mr. Ward's actions, and suffer the loss of their father, but Diane Ward does not get a "second chance" either. It is important for us to soberly remember that our sinful actions can have suffering consequences for not only ourselves, but others.
And finally, there is another system of ordained authority, that of God over us. And because of original sin, we experience the consequences of the sins of Adam and Eve. As horrible as it seems, God's justice is obtained when He condemns us to eternal punishment and suffering Many will say, simlarly to what the Ward daughter said, that "Justice for God is not sending people to hell," but they would be just as wrong. However, unlike in our criminal justice system, a pardon is available to all who seek it. And uniquely, it is because He punished someone who was innocent. Our pardon is assured if only we will accept this fact into our hearts along with Christ our savior.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Unwants. Deleting The Suffering.
I had a patient who was quite old and quite sick. He was in his late eighties and had a heart valve problem. This is fairly common, and we do surgery on the elderly all the time; however, the risks in this age group are significant, for heart valve surgery in older patients can come with numerous complications. And this patient, in particular, had many other medical problems that would make his recovery from surgery difficult. He was undecided as to whether or not he wished to proceed. He was quite worried that even if he survived the surgery, his quality of life might be worse than it already was. He wanted an exellent quality of life all the way up until his death, for as he said to me, "I want to be alive when I die."
In this day and time, we are so used to having our every need met, and especially our basic needs. Things that only a hundred years ago were impossible are now taken for granted. There were more people connected to the internet in 2000 than were connected to running water in 1900. Even America's poorest live in the top 30% of worldwide income. Heart surgery as we know it today did not exist until sixty years ago. And beyond those basic needs such as food and shelter, we are used to getting our desires met right down to the correct size and color and flavor. In other parts of the world, where any food would be welcome, we are able to order our meal with potato chips, french fries, seasoned fries, sweet potato fries, or home fries.
And with health care, a hundred years ago kidney failure was fatal. You didn't have the option to go for dialysis or a kidney transplant. Seventy years ago, if you had a heart valve problem, you died. Now you can choose between mechanical heart valves or tissue heart valves, ones made with cow tissue or pig tissue, and from having a full chest incision to having minimally invasive valve surgery with a small incision. So we expect to be able to choose the quality of our life up until the end.
Much of our prayer life is intercessory in nature, for others and ourselves.
We pray for God to give us what we want, our wants.
We pray for God to take away from us what we do not want, our unwants.
Clearly, suffering is an unwant. We desire to hit the "Delete" button and correct this bad thing that has come into our life. The problem is that what is absolutely guaranteed to happen is what God wants. And the unfortunate thing is that unless our wants and unwants are aligned with God's wants we tend to be discontented. I think this level of discontent today is much worse than it was years ago, where we had less ability to satisfy our own wants. There was more acceptance of things that could not be changed when there were so many things that could not be changed. There was more dependence on God to change things because that was the only way they could be changed. If you had a heart valve problem seventy years ago, you could not change how and when and where you would die or what your quality of life would be, which was pretty bad. And the only way you could be healed was for God to work a miracle.
God's soverign will is what is going to happen, what He wants. We should be so very thankful that our unwants today, awful as they can be when they happen to us, are so much less common than before.
In this day and time, we are so used to having our every need met, and especially our basic needs. Things that only a hundred years ago were impossible are now taken for granted. There were more people connected to the internet in 2000 than were connected to running water in 1900. Even America's poorest live in the top 30% of worldwide income. Heart surgery as we know it today did not exist until sixty years ago. And beyond those basic needs such as food and shelter, we are used to getting our desires met right down to the correct size and color and flavor. In other parts of the world, where any food would be welcome, we are able to order our meal with potato chips, french fries, seasoned fries, sweet potato fries, or home fries.
And with health care, a hundred years ago kidney failure was fatal. You didn't have the option to go for dialysis or a kidney transplant. Seventy years ago, if you had a heart valve problem, you died. Now you can choose between mechanical heart valves or tissue heart valves, ones made with cow tissue or pig tissue, and from having a full chest incision to having minimally invasive valve surgery with a small incision. So we expect to be able to choose the quality of our life up until the end.
Much of our prayer life is intercessory in nature, for others and ourselves.
We pray for God to give us what we want, our wants.
We pray for God to take away from us what we do not want, our unwants.
Clearly, suffering is an unwant. We desire to hit the "Delete" button and correct this bad thing that has come into our life. The problem is that what is absolutely guaranteed to happen is what God wants. And the unfortunate thing is that unless our wants and unwants are aligned with God's wants we tend to be discontented. I think this level of discontent today is much worse than it was years ago, where we had less ability to satisfy our own wants. There was more acceptance of things that could not be changed when there were so many things that could not be changed. There was more dependence on God to change things because that was the only way they could be changed. If you had a heart valve problem seventy years ago, you could not change how and when and where you would die or what your quality of life would be, which was pretty bad. And the only way you could be healed was for God to work a miracle.
God's soverign will is what is going to happen, what He wants. We should be so very thankful that our unwants today, awful as they can be when they happen to us, are so much less common than before.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Doubting the Benefit-- What Good is Suffering Anyway?
So I am in a hurry at the grocery store and I need to check out as quickly as possible. I head straight for the express lane with my seven items (yes, I count them). As I maneuver into position there is a young couple ahead of me with a month's worth of groceries laid out on the conveyor belt ahead of me.
To my way of understanding, going through the express lane with more than the allowed ten items should be a capital offense, or at least a felony; the punishment should both deter and ensure that there are no repeat offenders. There wasn't any point at even trying to count all the multitude of groceries stretched out ahead of mine; I could only glare at them.
I Corinthians 13:4-7 gives us the oft-quoted scripture from Paul defining love. "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Although it is not in this or other passages of scripture, one other message on love that I came across last week is, "Love gives others the benefit of the doubt." Now, in my world, there are no shades of gray. Things are either black or white, good or evil, saintly or wicked. It is a stretch for me to see extenuating circumstances, although we would all, myself included, like to be given the benefit of the doubt when we fall short. I have been blessed many times by others extending me this benefit.
Anyway, the cashier felt prompted to say something to these wretched violators of decency. She admonished them, "Next time I will need you to use one of the regular lanes. This lane is for ten items or less." And the young couple, who were well-dressed and appeared educated, stared with mouths partly open at the express lane sign, saying "Oh. We didn't know."
Well, talk about adding insult to injury. I would have rather that they just completed their business and gone on their sinful way without trying to play dumb about it. I mean, really, who in America above the age of two doesn't know what the express lane is for? To stand there and pretend ignorance as an excuse for such uncivilized behavior was galling. Please, just take your truckload of groceries and go.
The couple explained they were visiting from another country. They really didn't know what an express lane was. They apologized to the cashier, to me, and to the person in line behind me. I had made a lot of assumptions in condemning them. I had jumped to conclusions. I had not given them the benefit of the doubt.
So, we who would all like to be shown the benefit of the doubt need to show it to others. I think there is another scripture in there somewhere about, "...just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise." And do we give our Lord the benefit of the doubt?
You see, when suffering comes upon us, we often see no good in it. We don't trust God's plans for us, His love for us, His caring for us. In these situations, when we do not give God the benefit of the doubt, we are doubting the benefit. As it says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called to His purpose." When we suffer, we must not jump to conclusions. We must go back to those things His Word tells us, the things we know to be true. We must remind ourselves that not only is God in control, but that He cares for us and will work all things for good. What seems so cruel and unfair to us in our limited understanding is promised to us by Scripture to be for our eternal benefit, a benefit which we must not doubt.
To my way of understanding, going through the express lane with more than the allowed ten items should be a capital offense, or at least a felony; the punishment should both deter and ensure that there are no repeat offenders. There wasn't any point at even trying to count all the multitude of groceries stretched out ahead of mine; I could only glare at them.
I Corinthians 13:4-7 gives us the oft-quoted scripture from Paul defining love. "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Although it is not in this or other passages of scripture, one other message on love that I came across last week is, "Love gives others the benefit of the doubt." Now, in my world, there are no shades of gray. Things are either black or white, good or evil, saintly or wicked. It is a stretch for me to see extenuating circumstances, although we would all, myself included, like to be given the benefit of the doubt when we fall short. I have been blessed many times by others extending me this benefit.
Anyway, the cashier felt prompted to say something to these wretched violators of decency. She admonished them, "Next time I will need you to use one of the regular lanes. This lane is for ten items or less." And the young couple, who were well-dressed and appeared educated, stared with mouths partly open at the express lane sign, saying "Oh. We didn't know."
Well, talk about adding insult to injury. I would have rather that they just completed their business and gone on their sinful way without trying to play dumb about it. I mean, really, who in America above the age of two doesn't know what the express lane is for? To stand there and pretend ignorance as an excuse for such uncivilized behavior was galling. Please, just take your truckload of groceries and go.
The couple explained they were visiting from another country. They really didn't know what an express lane was. They apologized to the cashier, to me, and to the person in line behind me. I had made a lot of assumptions in condemning them. I had jumped to conclusions. I had not given them the benefit of the doubt.
So, we who would all like to be shown the benefit of the doubt need to show it to others. I think there is another scripture in there somewhere about, "...just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise." And do we give our Lord the benefit of the doubt?
You see, when suffering comes upon us, we often see no good in it. We don't trust God's plans for us, His love for us, His caring for us. In these situations, when we do not give God the benefit of the doubt, we are doubting the benefit. As it says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called to His purpose." When we suffer, we must not jump to conclusions. We must go back to those things His Word tells us, the things we know to be true. We must remind ourselves that not only is God in control, but that He cares for us and will work all things for good. What seems so cruel and unfair to us in our limited understanding is promised to us by Scripture to be for our eternal benefit, a benefit which we must not doubt.
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