Somebody's Gonna Pay For This
So called "victims" are making some good money these days.
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, PA was leaving a house he had just finished robbing in October, 1998. He went into the garage and locked the door behind him. He pressed the electric garage door opener. Nothing. It had malfunctioned. And the family was on vacation so they weren’t going to rescue him anytime soon. He supposedly subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food – for 8 days.
Later he sued the family’s homeowner’s insurance, claiming that the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of a half million dollars.
Or how about 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles winning $74,000 in medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal the hubcaps.
Ridiculously unfair?
Yes. But it’s not the first time an unfair verdict was handed out to benefit someone who really didn’t deserve it. Someone who really deserved the opposite.
This verdict doesn’t have anything to do with a confused jury, a slick trial attorney, an overturned legal technicality, or a loophole in some dusty law. In fact, this verdict paid the claim of “victims” who didn’t even have enough sense to make the claim themselves. Instead, the verdict payee filed the claim against himself! A claim that would award ridiculously undeserving thieves with an unfair, priceless amount of coddling love, generous luxury, compassionate help, and eternal life.
“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
PRAYER: Merciful Lord, your grace is hard to figure out, and frankly doesn’t make sense. And that’s why I love you so, because such is the grace I need. Your forgiveness is so freely given that sometimes my friends laugh at it. And that’s why I love you so, because such is the forgiveness I need. I pray that I will be so gracious and kind that others don’t understand why, and that I will be so forgiving that others laugh at me. Amen.