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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 4:40 pm 
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Making sense of the senseless.


Seven Times, and Yet

Karen had five younger brothers. Her being the older sister of a whole brood surely explained a few things about her personality. At the service both her pastor and the brother who spoke alluded to the way people often had “run-ins” with her. They laughed and made light of it. In truth it was a minor fault in the context of a life that, certainly in its latter years, was well-lived.

Though she spoke fondly of her childhood, her adult life didn’t turn out the way she would have hoped. In late-middle age she found herself single again, with no very good way of making a living and an adult daughter who had made a royal mess of her own life. That situation was so dire that Karen applied for legal guardianship of her young granddaughter. She spent the next seven years raising her.

Karen had an education, but in our small town opportunities for an older woman with her particular skill set were not good. She worked at several occupations before eventually becoming our janitor at the library. Between this part-time work, and housecleaning gigs that she got in the afternoons and evenings, she was hard-pressed to make ends meet.

Her church helped out greatly by letting her live in a house rent-free (she did some budgeting work for the church in return) and setting her up with a loaner vehicle when her old car finally died. She also had access to their community garden. Members say that she only took what she needed at any given time from the garden. The rest she left for others who might need it. She also helped to take care of elderly ladies in town, apart from her paid work.

With this help, and very careful money management, she made ends meet for herself and her granddaughter. She made sure that her granddaughter studied hard, encouraged her to read and watched educational television with her, got her music lessons, sent her to summer camp through the church, and supported her in her extracurricular activities at school. She also encouraged her to take part in volunteer work. I became acquainted with her through her volunteer work at the library. From everything I could see, her grandmother was raising her to be a smart, cheerful, well-socialized, youth—what anybody would call “well-adjusted.”

Occasionally Karen and I would talk at work. She was an interesting conversationalist, more widely read than most people I know locally, and full of stories. Now and then we’d talk for quite a while during some special task (Usually ceiling scrubbing or gutter cleaning—when a job involves much ladder climbing I’m afraid to delegate it) at work. I learned about her childhood back east, and something about her youth in California (She looked very much like an aging California girl), and what was going on with her and her granddaughter in the present.

Her last day at work was a Friday. We barely saw each other that day, as we went about our separate tasks at the library. The few words we exchanged that day were so routine and trivial that I can’t recall them after only a few weeks. It would have been different if we’d known it was to be our last meeting. But of course we couldn’t.

Forty-eight hours later she was dead, murdered in her own home. The killers gunned down this hard-working, harmless person, and her young granddaughter, and while they were at it killed the family pet. They took the small amount of cash they found on hand and a couple of portable items—there was little around to steal—and fled the scene. The granddaughter, who had somehow had the presence of mind to play dead, made her way on foot to the police station and was airlifted to a hospital. She’s now alive and doing well, with a fragment of bullet in her body that the doctors decided would be too dangerous to remove. She will probably carry it for the rest of her life.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 4:42 pm 
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The murderers were from an impoverished background. But simple poverty doesn’t drive people deliberately to gun down human beings in the process of stealing trivial sums. This was a crime of sheer, murderous hatred. Some of us who knew Karen didn’t bother asking “Why did this happen?” We knew why. It happened because we live in a world so evil, so alienated from God, that even the lives of human beings created in God’s image are held to be of no value. Would that we could be surprised at such things.

At Karen’s funeral the pastor said that he was not going to avoid the elephant in the room. Karen had been the victim of a crime of violence and hate. It was a product of a society where, just as some don’t think that black lives matter, others see a poor white woman and her granddaughter living in their neighborhood as things to be exterminated. The pastor warned us that hate is not an option for those who loved Karen and honored her life and the God she served. For even the two murderers remain human beings created in God’s image. It was up to us to pray for those youths, that they could come to God and be forgiven of their crime before it was too late for them.

“I never thought I would preach a funeral sermon from the book of Proverbs,” he said. But the text he chose from that Old Testament book was most appropriate:

"Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; don’t seek to rob his home. For though a just man falls seven times, yet will he rise again, but the wicked will fall into trouble.

"Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls, or be glad when he stumbles, or the Lord may see it and turn his wrath from your enemy to you.

"Don’t fret because of evil men, or be envious of the wicked. For there will be no reward for the wicked man; his lamp will be snuffed out."

“If you can’t forgive,” the pastor went on to say, “maybe it’s because you’ve never been forgiven.” He urged anybody there who could not have a forgiving heart to look carefully at their own relationship with God.
Karen’s brother spoke, both at the funeral and later on in private conversation with some of us at work, of how he had seen Karen’s life changed for the better when she decided to follow Jesus. The same had happened to him when he himself had followed Jesus. It made him do things that he couldn’t do before—like forgiving his sister’s murderers, and praying for their salvation.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 4:45 pm 
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Weeks later, Karen’s granddaughter is now with her uncle and aunt out of state. She may decide to stay with them until she graduates high school. Perhaps it would be best for her to spend some time away from here, and all the unwittingly harmful questions and reminders she faces.

Back here in town, we’re learning how to continue our lives without Karen. She has left a legacy of good works and good memories of friendship. And also, in the county jail, two youths facing what will likely be a capital murder indictment, with plenty of evidence and a surviving eyewitness.

There is within me a little part that would like to see the pit of Hell itself open and swallow the murderers alive. A much larger part of me would like to see them avoid that fate. Their eternal condemnation would be absolutely just. And then again, so would mine. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of what we owe to our Creator. Jesus died for all of us—murderers, thieves, adulterers, jerks, and just plain selfish and mediocre people like me. When we smugly compare ourselves to society’s very worst, we set the bar for ourselves far too low; we fool ourselves into thinking that we’re just fine the way we are. It’s the number one delusion of our whole society. One way or another all of our ills flow from it.

“If you can’t forgive, maybe it’s because you’ve never been forgiven.” I have been forgiven, and so I desire to see forgiveness. To do any less would be to fail to honor the name of the Christ whose name I bear. Over and over again Jesus told those who follow him to love their enemies, bless those who curse them, pray for those who mistreat them. It’s not something we’re naturally able to do. But following Jesus makes us able to do things we couldn’t do before.

We can do it, and we must do it. Because modeling God’s forgiveness is a way of letting others know that it is open to them as well. We live in an evil world and suffer its evil like anybody else. Yet we are no longer part of that world. We’re only passing through it on the way to something better, inviting others to come along with us. The evil can knock us down, but it cannot destroy us.

“For a just man falls seven times, yet will he rise again.” Some evil force stirred two youths to knock Karen down in an effort to get this good woman out of its way. She’ll have the last laugh. She’s already getting it, now that her friends and family aren’t playing by the expected script. What somebody meant for evil is already turning to good in the lives of people around Karen. Her testimony, and that of her bereaved, will go on for a long time and have the chance to touch many.

Perhaps the good will even manage to engulf the murderers, so that they and their victim will someday meet in better circumstances. Or perhaps they will reject the chance they get and remain on the road to Hell. It’s up to each of us which we choose. Either way, Karen didn’t live in vain, or die in vain.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah once said:

"The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; to bind up the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God."

Jesus read that passage at his first recorded public message. But he stopped the reading at “the favorable year of the Lord.” Then he told his listeners, “Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Since that time, we have lived in “the favorable year.” How much longer will this “year” last? It beats me. I suspect not a great many more calendar years.

In the meantime, we sometimes have cause to ask why God allows evil behavior. In part it’s because he is waiting to give us one more chance to accept his mercy before the offer expires. In the meantime, we forgive because we have been forgiven, love because we have been loved, give because we asked and it was given to us. If in the process we must suffer wickedness…well, we are Jesus’ servants, and a servant is not more privileged than the master. Our Master got up again when he was knocked down, and so will we.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 10:42 am 
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Anniversary bump.

As far as I know, Karen's granddaughter is doing well in her new home.

The two murderers were recently sentenced to long terms without parole. They've both completely ruined their futures here on Earth. Praying for them now that they will come to Jesus and not ruin it for themselves in eternity.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 10:51 am 
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This is a tragic story. It's impossible to imagine what motivates people to behave like that. It's not even greed, it's just unimaginable.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:21 am 
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Second anniversary bump.

More necessary than ever to remember this in a darkening world.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


Last edited by That meddlin kid on Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:24 am 
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I've just re-read this. It's appalling.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:27 am 
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Simon wrote:
I've just re-read this. It's appalling.


Yes there is, and yet ultimately there's hope that goes beyond the world we have to deal with now.

Years ago, during a bad time in my life, I told a friend of mine that I felt like a foreigner in this world. He told me "Keep your passport up to date!" And he was right. I don't WANT to be a citizen of this world when there's something better out there.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:30 am 
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That meddlin kid wrote:
The two murderers were recently sentenced to long terms without parole. They've both completely ruined their futures here on Earth. Praying for them now that they will come to Jesus and not ruin it for themselves in eternity.


Justice calls for the death penalty.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 1:41 pm 
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Li'l Jay wrote:
That meddlin kid wrote:
The two murderers were recently sentenced to long terms without parole. They've both completely ruined their futures here on Earth. Praying for them now that they will come to Jesus and not ruin it for themselves in eternity.


Justice calls for the death penalty.


Well, no disagreements there, but the state elected for whatever reasons not to pursue that option. They won't ultimately escape the true Judge and penalty for what they did. Unless they throw themselves on the Judge's mercy, in which case they will become brothers of mine and Karen's in eternity. I hope that's what happens, because it's what Jesus would want. We forgive because we have been forgiven. But it's up to them to take the opportunity they've been given.

As for the here and now, they're safely locked up.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 8:25 pm 
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I've always felt such pity for criminals. Why take away someone's future AND keep them alive to see what they've missed? Sheer barbarism, and it just perpetuates the horrors they've done to others. Though, that said, I also understand EXACTLY why people would demand that one's offender should suffer exactly what they did.. Can't we just ship 'em off to a godsforsaken island somewhere in the Pacific and forget about them? At least then they could maybe build a life.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:45 am 
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Third anniversary bump.

This morning on my morning walk (I can do that again now! :yay2: ) I arrived on the spillway end of the city park just in time to see the most beautiful sunrise I've had a chance to see in months. Karen would have loved to have seen that. We used to talk about things like that.

Yesterday I had a very tough day at work, and was feeling very discouraged. As I went to bed yesterday evening, I thought about the fact that today would be the third anniversary of Karen's murder. I remembered that I needed to pray for her killers to find repentance and salvation while they still can. Then I started to imagine a future where Karen and I and they could meet together in Heaven, all members of the family of Jesus. I thought too about others I've been concerned about being there as well. I prayed for it all to happen.

I don't know whether that scene will happen someday or not. Karen and I are down for it; the rest depends on decisions that are out of my control. But knowing that it's still a possibility that we might all be reconciled made me the happiest I'd been all day.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:02 pm 
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I'm pleased to know you can go on your morning walk again.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:47 am 
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Fourth anniversary bump.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 12:18 pm 
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These anniversaries in some ways get easier as time softens the edges. In other ways they are harder when that almost forgot sorrow pops up from nowhere. Stop, take a moment, remember, mourn, then return to the present. I have to think our lost ones know when they are remembered, just as I have no doubt that you will see Karen again, when it is time.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:29 am 
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Fifth anniversary bump.

Thank you for what you said last year, Maria. I pray that this year you'll be able to remember and take comfort in those words.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:36 am 
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I hope the same thing, Daphne.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 12:17 pm 
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Sixth anniversary bump.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 2:54 am 
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Thinking of you, Daphne.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 11:12 am 
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This thread is not far short of ten thousand views. I wonder who has been looking at it? How have they been finding it? I know there aren't that many people at IMWAN! I hope that many more get to see it.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.


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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 2:10 pm 
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I've read it a few times over the years, but I've never had much to add or contribute.

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 Post subject: Seven Times, and Yet
PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 11:06 am 
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Seventh anniversary bump. It's been on my mind a good bit, as we approached the date.

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