The fine

January 18, 2010

Several years ago a poor, elderly man found himself standing before the judge in Municipal Court in Fort Worth, TX. He was caught driving with expired auto insurance. It was an oversight on his part — he had simply forgotten to renew it.

The judge read the charges and asked him what he pleaded.

He replied, “I plead guilty, Your Honor, and I throw myself on the mercy of the court.”

The judge felt compassion for the man of obviously meager means, but there was nothing he could do. The law was the law. He reduced the fine as low as he could and ordered it to be paid within 30 days.

Devastated, the man left the court room, knowing there was no way he would be able to pay.

Thirty days came and went and on the 30th day, the man returned to the courthouse. He spoke to the Clerk explaining that he did not have the money and asked if there was anything he could do. After reviewing his file she said, “But sir, your fine has been paid.” He was surprised. “But how? I didn’t pay.”

“No, but the judge did.”

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I heard this story recently and it’s a perfect picture of us and God. So often God gets a bad rap because we only see Him as judge. He hands down our rightful sentence — that we most certainly deserve — and we can’t get over it. We are devastated by what we owe and know we will never be able to pay. In our pride and arrogance, God becomes the object of the frustration we have for ourselves and we shake our fist at him screaming, “Jerk!” We spend those 30 days, angry at what He’s done, overlooking what we’ve done and blaming Him for everything that’s wrong in our lives.

We are fools. Because if we would simply humble ourselves and face the truth, we would see that our penalty is indeed fair…and that He paid it in full.

Photo by Joe Gratz

Related posts:

1. A fine mothering moment
2. Yet another issue

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