The most conscientious hunter I ever met during my years working as a Colorado wildlife officer was a man who called me at home and asked to meet with me. He introduced himself and said, “I want you to give me a ticket. I killed a calf elk.”

He explained that he shot and killed a cow elk for which he had a license. He dressed the animal and went back to get help to pack it out. When they returned, they found a calf elk dead lying next to the cow. The calf was already spoiled. He said that his wife had a cow license, but that putting her tag on it wouldn’t make it right. There was no one else around.

A drive to make right what he did wrong

I had never seen anyone so distraught. Having had a similar experience with a hunter years earlier, I probed a little deeper. I told him that the fine for killing an elk was $400. He responded, “That is a cheap price to clear one’s conscience.”

I asked him if he had proof that he killed the elk, and he said no, but he would plead guilty. I knew Judge Wardell would probably throw me out of his courtroom if I brought this man before him.

I sensed a special connection with the man and asked him, “Are you a Christian?” and he answered “Yes.”

How can I make this right?

I asked him if he had prayed about his decision and he answered that he did. I asked, “Do you think God has forgiven you?” and he answered, “Yes.”

I said, “If God has forgiven you then the State of Colorado has nothing against you.”

I told him that if his conscience was still bothering him that he could make a donation to Operation Game Thief, the Division’s poacher hotline. I found out later that he indeed sent a $400 donation.

Resolution requires doing what you can to right the wrong

Moses taught the Israelite people that when you wrong someone God wants you to make restitution (Numbers 5:5-6 NIV) . As much as possible, you must make up for what you did. You must try to right the wrong done.

In this case, when the man accidentally killed the calf elk, he wronged the citizens of the State of Colorado. This hunter's conscience was so sensitive to his relationship with God that he couldn't ignore the fact that his carelessness led to the killing of an animal by accident. He could have put his wife's tag on the carcass and even that wasn't right not only by law, but by his conscience. Rather than cover up his misdeed, he chose to face the music and pay a fine. 

I met a lot of wonderful people in my career, but never such a display of integrity and honesty. His hunting party and I are the only ones to know this story. He didn't do it to show off and bring attention to his contrite heart, but he came quietly to me. He didn't know me or anything about me or how I would handle the case. Some officers would have cited him into court, but I think the Holy Spirit intervened for me to handle the case the way I did.

What Jesus said

This man was an example of the kind of person Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6 NIV).

Today’s prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray that You will search me and bring to my awareness anything that is getting in the way of our fellowship. If there is anything that I need to make right, please show me what it is and help me to know what I must do. Amen.

Resource

This story is excerpted from Echoes From the Mountains: The Life and Adventures of a Colorado Wildlife Officer, by Glen A. Hinshaw

https://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Mountains-Adventures-Colorado-Wildlife/dp/1502768119/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Glen+A+Hinshaw+Echoes+from+the+Mountains&qid=1556837086&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spell

Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek.” But who wants to be a doormat? Because that’s what we think meekness is: giving in to the strong because you’re too weak to stand up to them.

Jesus showed us a dramatically different picture. He faced down the religious leaders of his day so successfully that they had to dream up false charges to get him killed. But then he turned around and died for their sins of false accusation and murder.

When the Apostle John told the story about Jesus’ last supper with the disciples, John said that Jesus knew His time had come to die. He also knew that He had come from God and was going back to God. And He knew that hard times were coming for His disciples. He wanted to show them how much He loved them and help them to understand what loving each other looks like in His kingdom. So He did something they never expected.

Jesus took off his outer clothing, wrapped a towel around him like the least important servant, and began going around the table, washing the disciples’ filthy feet.

In Jesus’s time and even in the Middle East today, people thought feet were one of the most disgusting parts of their body. Perhaps that might be partly because in those days, most people either had no shoes or wore sandals. To get from one place to another, they had to walk. Only a few wealthy people had donkeys or horses to ride. Those donkeys and horses made messes in the streets as they went along, and so did the other animals that used those streets, like sheep and pigs. The animals made the roads even more disgusting for people walking through the dung and mud in their bare feet or sandals.

So, in Jesus’s time, when people came into someone’s house or tent, the owner provided water for them to wash their feet. If they came into a wealthy house, the lowest ranking servant washed their feet.

The disciples believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, and as leaders in training, they expected to take positions of authority and power in His coming kingdom. They kept getting sidetracked into arguments over who was the greatest. The mother of James and John even joined the competition and asked Jesus to give her two sons the positions of highest honor in His coming kingdom.

So, when all the disciples arrived in the room set up for their Passover meal, with no water provided for washing their feet, they all went to the table with filthy feet.

Jesus understood the ambitions of His disciples. He wanted them to understand how different the kingdom of God is from the kingdoms of mankind, and how different a leader of God is from leaders in the world. But instead of lecturing them about the difference, He gave them a picture. He started washing their feet, one by one.

When He came to Peter, Peter protested “No! You shouldn’t wash my feet!”

“You don’t understand what I am doing now,” Jesus said. “But later you will understand.”

Peter refused to believe it. “No!” he said. “You should never be the one who has to wash my feet!”

“If I don’t wash your feet,” Jesus said, “then you have no part with me.”

“Then wash my head!” Peter said. “Wash my hands, too!”

“Someone who has taken a bath only needs to have his feet washed to be completely clean,” Jesus said. “And you are clean – but not all of you.” (He was thinking of Judas, who was plotting with the religious leaders to arrest Jesus.)

When Jesus finished washing all the disciples’ feet, He put his robes back on and joined the disciples at the table.

“You need to understand what I have done for you,” He said, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so. I am indeed your Teacher and your Lord. Now if I, as your Teacher and Lord, wash your feet, you must wash each other’s feet. The servant is not greater than the master. The messenger is not greater than the one who sends him. I have set you an example. This is how you are to treat each other.”

The men whose feet Jesus washed did not yet understand who Jesus was and is. But now, after his resurrection, we realize that in this story we are watching the one through whom all the universe was created, who is above all, who is the exact image of the invisible God, the one who is fully God, yet fully human like us. There with his towel across his knees, he is holding the universe together.

AND he is also coming close to the very end of his emptying himself, his not-grasping at being God, his complete obedience, faithfulness and meekness that will end in a death that is going to make it possible for these rough men and our rough selves to be covered in his holiness.

Today’s prayer

Dear Jesus, I bow down before you today in awe of your power, your meekness and your love. Help me, I pray, to lay aside my rights like you did and serve with meekness and love. Amen.

© 2019 Becky Cerling Powers and Lee Merrill Byrd

Sometimes we ignore what’s right in front of our eyes.

One of my grandfather’s workers saw that happen in the 1950s when the Cerling Construction Company won the bid to build the YMCA in Elmhurst, Illinois.

The company was supposed to build the YMCA on a big lot that had been vacant for many years. The train station was close by, and a lot of people used the vacant lot to park their cars when they caught the train to work every day in Chicago.

NO PARKING

The first task for building the YMCA was to dig a huge hole for the basement foundation in that vacant lot. Of course the workers couldn’t do that if there were cars parked where they needed to excavate the hole. So the day before work began, Cerling Construction barricaded both ends of the alley giving access to the lot, and they posted signs saying “NO PARKING.”

But when the excavator arrived the next morning to begin work, he found that a man had removed one of the barricades and was driving onto the lot to park his car.

“Hold on!” the worker told him. “We’re going to be excavating here today. You’ll have to remove your car.”

The entitled driver

The man was angry. “I have been using this space for many years,” he said, “and I intend to keep using it!” Then he parked his car, set the brake, and walked away to catch his train.

The excavator didn’t argue. He just watched the man go.

Then he used his forklift to pick up the man’s car, being careful not to damage it. He placed the car out of the way of the excavation site and started digging. Then for the rest of the day, as he excavated the big hole for the building’s foundation, he carefully dumped all the excavated dirt into a complete ring around the stubborn man’s car, six or seven feet high.

When my father told me this story, he said he never did hear what happened when the man returned to his car. But I bet he wasn’t too happy.

Taking a gift for granted

All day every day big gifts and little gifts come our way. For years this man received the gift of a convenient, free parking place in an unused vacant lot. But instead of seeing this privilege as a gift and expressing thanks, he took the gift for granted and began to think of the vacant lot as something he was entitled to – something that, somehow, somebody owed him. (Who might that be? He never stopped to think.) So when the gift disappeared, that frame of mind made him get angry and do something very foolish.

Jesus said

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

Today’s prayer

Soften my heart and open my eyes, Lord, to see – to really see – the gifts You give me today: those good things that come that I did nothing to earn or buy. Open my heart and open my mouth to give You thanks all through the day. Amen.

©2018 Becky Cerling Powers