Jury Duty

This week I showed up as summoned for jury duty. I was number 1278.  Tommy went with me since he had nothing else to do - that is a joke - and I am glad he did because everything had changed.  The jury parking lot is now in a different location, and the jury rooms are as well.  There are four of them.  I was assigned to Jury Room #1.  It was full of people, anxiously waiting to see if they were to be the chosen or the unchosen....and secretly wishing to be the latter.  Okay, maybe some not so secretly by the expressions on their faces.  No one ever seems to want to be picked for a jury, and yet our country is envied across the globe for its fair judicial system.  Well, I guess it is as fair as they come, but not without its flaws.  We were soon told that all of us would be called for a panel and  so we watched the screen and waited for our numbers to appear.
I was in the second panel and once we were in the hall, I was given number 21 out of 24.  Not bad.  Number 20 asked me if she could borrow a pen.  (If you know me, you know I always carry several in my purse.)  I could have said, "What color?" but I refrained.  We began to converse and I learned that her daughter had lost a baby the day before. Tears filled her eyes and I knew there was another place she would rather be than here.  I promised to pray for them.
We did not get to sit together as they seated us in rows of 10 and she was on one end and I began the next row.  As questions began to flow from the attorneys in front of us, I was struck by people's answers.  They had all kinds of opposition and grievances toward both lawyers, but when asked if they could render a just verdict despite their opinions, they all answered 'yes.'  I guess no one wants to be labelled unfair or unjust when rendering a verdict to another human being.  Everyone had a story of mistrust and wrong doing, and I guess they were trying to convince the attorneys not to pick them. I said very little and they asked me very little.
Since there were only six needed for this jury, the selection ended with number 17.  I have been called to jury duty many times, but have never been chosen.  And so my record remains intact.
I always take a book or something to write on in order to redeem my time while waiting. Tim Keller's book, "The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness" went with me that day so I could drill it more into my head.  Ironically, I came across a court scene and some quotes from the book that are applicable to this subject.
Please read below:

From the book, p. 37
"...what we are all looking for is an ultimate verdict that we are important and valuable.  We look for that ultimate verdict every day in all the situations and people around us.  And that means that every single day, we are on trial.  Every day, we put ourselves back in a courtroom.  
...In the courtroom, you have the prosecution and the defence.  And everything we do is providing evidence for the prosecution or evidence for the defence.  Some days we feel we are winning the trial and other days we feel we are losing it.  But Paul says that he has found the secret.  The trial is over for him.  He is out of the courtroom.  It is gone.  It is over. Because the ultimate verdict is in.
p. 41...Jesus went on trial instead.  Jesus went into the courtroom.  He was on trial.  It was an unjust trial in a kangaroo court - but He didn't complain....He faced the trial that should be ours so that we do not have to face any more trials."  Tim Keller

This is the only courtroom that will ever matter to me. One Man crucified for my crimes against a holy God. I owed a debt I could not pay.  He paid a debt He did not owe.
What sacrifice, what love.