Justice Delayed...

The trial for the two men accused of killing Donald Dietz (my dad's neighbor) is finally beginning; the murder occured in Sept. of 2007; it has been almost four years...I know that the wheels of justice grind slowly, but this is fairly pathetic...it reminds me that we often have to wait until our lives here are over to know the justice of God that is missing in our lives.  It would be so much easier, we think, if God was sitting at his computer, hitting the "smite" key anytime somebody stepped out of line (ok, I stole that idea from a classic Far Side comic); at least then we'd know that justice does indeed prevail...It would be more satisfying perhaps, but would it be better?  Why does God wait so long?  II Peter 3:9 reminds us that, "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."  We may want God to avenge us now, to put the bullies and the jerks in this world in their place.  God's reply to us: "my child, I waited for you to repent, why shouldn't I do the same for my other children?"  I guess God really does know what he is doing...as for Donald and his family, hopefully they will at least receive the small comfort of knowing that human justice does eventually come about from time to time.

Greed and the Death of our neighbor the "Bicycle Man"

Today in Federal Court two men were charged with the kidnapping and murder of our neighbor Donald Dietz, the "bicycle man", on Sep. 11, 2007. Donald was a very private man who lived at the end of a dirt road across from the state park (about a mile from my house, a couple hundred yards from my parents' house). I used to park across from his trailer (set a hundred yards back from the road) and go run on the park's trails. Donald road his bicylce to Ionia weekly, six miles on a busy narrow road; I always thought he'd get killed by a driver who didn't see him. The darkness of mens' hearts had other plans though. These two men tried to steal $450,000 from Donald and transfer it out of the country (the bank stopped the transfer, it looked suspicious). In the process, they evidently tasered this quiet older man, and at some point killed him. My father used to help Donald from time to time with things like paperwork, they both worked at Amway, and nobody would have known that this unassuming man had half a million dollars. The money had no hold at all on Donald, he just kept on saving it, but to these two men (whom I will not dignify by using their names) had enough Greed in their hearts to contemplate theft, to plan it, to contemplate and carry out kidnapping, and to let it lead to murder. Sin is like that, it blackens our hearts and destroys the humanity that we all have as Children of God. Donald certainly would not have appreciated being front page news in the Grand Rapids Press again and again, and he obviously didn't deserve to die, but in a world crying out for redemption by God this is what happens. My neighbor, a quiet man, was murdered by greed, our world is like that.