Contempt

Shep here.

Lawyering is interesting work.

 I have helped guilty people go free.

 I have seen justice ignored in spite of my best efforts.

In seventeen years, I can think of only one "Perry Mason" moment when I made a witness say, "You got me.  I'm a liar.  Everything I said today has been a lie."

I remember Judge Pope telling my client who was asking for a continuance, "Seems like going to trial is like going to heaven.  Everybody says they want to go...but nobody wants to go today."

A couple of weeks ago I sat in the courtroom.

Everyone ought to sit at the Plaintiff or Defendant's table at least once.  It is a crucible.

I had filed a motion for contempt.  My client and the opposing party divorced.  In the decree, my adversary was ordered to perform certain tasks- most of which involved transferring money (some to my client- some to creditors).  Our position was that he had willfully ignored the court order, should be held in contempt, and forced to comply with the order.

Mr. X's argument went like this, "I know what I was ordered to do.  I tried to do it.  I would have done it, except my ex-wife was not doing the things she was ordered to do."

During the course of the trial, the judge repeatedly told Mr. X, "We are not concerned with what your x-wife did.  We are only concerned with whether you did what this court ordered you to do."

At the end of the hearing the judge said, "Mr. X, I find that you are in willful contempt of this court's order, in that you failed to do: X, Y, & Z.  I order you to be placed into custody in the Bartow County Jail until such time as you purge said contempt..." The deputies slapped the bracelets on him, and he got to spend a few nights in jail.

I was actually fairly shocked...the man had some very good points.  The Court, however, was not interested.  The Court wanted no excuses.  The only questions that the Court decided were these:

1:  Did you know what you were supposed to do?
2:  Were you able to do what was ordered of you?
3.  Did you do what you were told?

This has had me thinking recently.   What could I be held in contempt for?  What have I been ordered to do that I have not done?

I have been overwhelmed recently by my obligation as a husband and father.  I feel like this world is fighting me at every turn.  When I attempt to take a stand- that's when I feel the current the strongest.  If you have ever stood in a river, you will know what I mean.

When I try to drive a stake in the ground, only then do I feel the hardness of the earth.  If you have ever worked a set of post hole diggers, you will know what I mean.

I have an obligation to love my wife sacrificially, and to raise up my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

It does not matter what anyone else in the whole world is doing.
It does not matter what anyone thinks.
It does not matter if its unpopular to those people I love the most.
It does not matter if I am tired, put upon, overworked, underpaid, treated unfairly, talked about, looked down upon, laughed at, despised, criticized...

The Court does not ask those questions.  The Court asks, "Did you know what you were supposed to do?  And, "did you do it?"

The rest does not matter.

I wonder if you (like me) might be in willful contempt.

If you are, I encourage you (like me) to come to the One who made you today, in the day of Mercy.  Please do not wait.  The Spirit of the Lord will not strive with man forever.

One day the gavel will fall.