Lessons from the Jury Room

LESSONS LEARNED IN THE JURY ROOM

After four long days of jury duty, starting on Monday morning, and ending on Thursday night at 8:00 pm, here are a few of the lessons I learned.
Realize, that October is my busy time of year, and, while I don't mind serving on jury duty as a rule, October is not the best time for me.

1. God may disrupt your schedule. Your inconvenience is not as important as His plan.

2. There are twelve jurors for a reason. Every one has a different life story, a different idea as to what is just, and feels pretty strongly about what he considers right and wrong.

3. Complaining about your circumstances in life does not make things better. When the court was going through the final numbering phase, putting the potential jurors in order of possible choice, my prayer had been "Please let me have a high number."
When they assigned the number 2 slot to this really big guy, I knew, that I would be next.
"Number 3. Randall Epps."
I think you could hear my disappointed sigh.

4. Accepting God's plan will bring a measure of peace.
"Okay, God, if this is what you want for me, I know you have a reason. Your will, not mine. But, please, don't make me foreman."

5.First day in jury room. Very little conversation. Most on phones, reading, or calling bosses, or family to let them know that they had been chosen. I was calling all my customers to reschedule the week's work. Judge said trial will probably be through by Wednesday morning. I could do quite a bit of work on Wed afternoon and all day Thursday. We had to go to Dallas on Friday for a wedding. Plenty of time to salvage part of my work week.

6. Don't believe the judge's timeline.

7. Day 2, the trial starts, and immediately your preconceived perceptions of who is probably right begins to change.
JURY room conversations MAY NOT INCLUDE TOTAL TALK.
So chit chat begins.
No bonding.
Shared imprisonment.
Talk of work, some family talk.

8. Day 3, you start to realize, this could take a while. You also start to think about things that are not said as well as things that are.
Jury room conversations begin to be a little more personal.
Tattooed guy with spiked hair has a young son who is in remission from a deadly form of cancer. He took time over summer, without a job to spend the time with his son.
Youngest guy on jury works for Target warehouse, lives in a small apartment, struggles with having enough to pay bills. Likes to party on Friday nights.
Mike loved to talk about the Cowboys. Knew to avoid politics.
Older man lives on Lake Winnsboro, and has killed dozens of copperheads on his property.
Shows pictures.
Young woman whose boss is kinda upset that she is off, says her 7 year old already "knows everything" and that her husband always thinks he is right about everything, and "unfortunately for me, he usually is."

9. Day 4. Are you kidding me? We have to finish today. I have to go to Dallas tomorrow. Cancelled Thursday jobs. Starting to lose the peace.
Jury room.
Everybody is emotionally drained, upset over trial, didn't sleep well.
Someone decides we need to know each other's names.
Johnny, Sean, Galen, Mike, Randy, Michelle, Rebecca, Taylor, Juanita, April, Linda, Shirley, and Vicki. Anyway, there were 13. Someone, we don't know who, is an alternate. Hears the whole trial, doesn't get to deliberate.
Judge reads charge to jury, closing arguments by lawyers, juror instructions, including choosing the foreman .
Judge says to Taylor, "Ms._______, you will need to remain here."
I whisper to her, "It's been nice knowing you."
"Don't say that!" she responded, a bit of fear in her eyes.(She hadn't yet realized that she was the alternate.)
We retired to the jury room to choose a foreman, and begin deliberations.


10. God doesn't always answer your prayers the way you want .
Sean, the young guy, said, "I am willing to be foreman, if no one else volunteers."
I kept quiet.
A couple of people said they definitely did not want to do it. One of the ladies asked  me, "What about you, Randy? Would you do it?"
(Silent scream!)
"I wasn't going to volunteer, but if y'all vote me in, I am willing to serve." (Seriously, Lord? You think I need to do this, too?)
Unanimous. I am it.

11. There is a strength that comes from above. There is an ability that God provides when he chooses a job for you.
Five and a half hours of deliberations.
We were able to merge our opinions, beliefs and come to a conclusion.

12. Forced closeness can build friendships.
When it was all over, we had turned in our judgment to the court and were waiting to be called back into the courtroom, I was able to share my Jesus with the other jurors, in a personal, natural conversation about my daughter's life, and the circumstances behind our raising my granddaughter.
I really felt like we had become friends, even though we didn't know each other's last name.
Close friends.
Thanks, Lord.
You knew all along.

Phyllis Clopton's School of Dance

PHYLLIS CLOPTON'S SCHOOL OF DANCE

Do you have any of those times in your past that your mom decided you just had to do something?

"One day, you will really be glad for this."

You know what I'm talking about. We all have those lessons. Moms.

Ballroom dance lessons.

Why in the world does a sixth grade boy have to take ballroom dance lessons?

"One day you will be glad you did this."

Fall of 1963, Monday nights for six weeks. The Garland,Tx community center old annex building.
Phyllis Clopton's ballroom dance class.

Oh, man. Could I be any more uncomfortable?

I had to wear a coat and tie to the stupid class.

Phyllis knew enough about the age to make her own pairs.
My partner was not too bad looking.

Phyllis demonstrated a style, explained that at the end of the course we would have a real dance, where we would invite a dance partner to come and witness our amazing new grace on the dance floor.

Anita.
Since first grade, the apple of my eye.
Around the fourth grade, she had gone to the country school outside of Garland, Rose Hill School, and I no longer could watch her dreamily across the room.
In the summer after fifth grade, Rose Hill burned down.  Garland had built a new elementary school, Southgate Elementary, and had ripped some of us Caldwell students and all the Rose Hill students away and put them together in Southgate.
And there, sitting across the room of my sixth grade class was Anita.
I had gotten a five year diary for Christmas in the fifth grade, and most entries were, "Not much happened today."
But one entry stood out.
"Anita looked at me today."

So, I figured, after I master this ballroom dance thing, me and Anita were going to finally be together. Forever.

So for six weeks I endured. I actually kinda liked it.
My dance partner was quiet. Soft. Calm. Shy.
No unnecessary uncomfortable conversation.
Just a shared enduring of the task at hand.
Box step. Foxtrot. Waltz. (No samba, rhumba, cha-cha, tango, paso doble. Just the simple stuff. Sixth graders, remember?)
I remember my partner's smile. A quiet, nice smile, teeth not perfectly straight, but pleasant.
I don't remember her name.
Phyllis walked around the dance floor, correcting postures, fixing holds.
"Don't rock, don't sway. Smooth movements. To the music."

Six weeks. Next week was the big day.

Days of rapid nervous heartbeat. Sweaty palms. Trying to summon the courage.

Do it.

In those days, most houses had one phone; in a special cubby, built especially for the telephone in the hallway.
For privacy, you stretched the phone into the bathroom, shut the door and hoped that no one could hear this conversation.

"Hello. Is Anita there?"

"Uh, Anita, this is Randy Epps. Would you go to this dance with me next Monday night? Oh, okay, no that's okay, no, I understand. Goodbye."

I wonder how much this crippled my future relationships, this first rejection.

The next Monday came, my dance partner came alone, we paired up, shared refreshments, and had a really nice time.

Years later, Wendy and I were married, had just moved back to Garland, and, like most young couples, we were really struggling to get our bills paid.
One day, the phone rang.
"Randy Epps?"
"Yes, this is he." (Grammar)
"This is J.C. Penny's collection department. You are behind on your credit card payments. We need to get a payment."
"Oh, yeah. I will mail it this week."
"Okay, thank you. We will be watching for it........Did you go to Southgate Elementary School?....This is Anita_______......Do you remember me?"

Soon after this, we got rid of all our credit cards.

By the way, that dance thing, never really took hold.

Thanks, Phyllis, at least you tried.

BLESSINGS

BLESSINGS
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

This morning in our men's Bible study, we were discussing Solomon's apparent frustration level as he neared the end of his life. (Ecclesiastes 2). One man remarked that it was kinda weird that he would feel this way after being so obviously blessed by God in every area of his life; riches, possessions, territory, inventions, women, fame.

I wonder of those really were blessings.

It's easy to think that way, especially growing up in the United States, where success has become the accepted measure of a man or woman.

Funny thing, though, Solomon had everything you or I might desire to obtain, and he found it to feel kind of empty. He would die, and he would be forgotten. What was the point?

Maybe, the real "blessings" that God sends our way are not the good happy times that we have previously thought.

Maybe, those moments of deep pain and loss, the times when we come to the end of our means, the end of our strength, the end of our human understanding, maybe those are the blessings that God sends.

I have found in the later years of my life, that, feeling God's pleasure is a greater satisfaction than any human accomplishment I have ever had.

And when did I feel His pleasure?

Those times when I could no longer see a possible way out, or through, without putting ALL of the burden on Him.

The times when I saw no possible way to pay the huge bill.

No possible way to fix the trauma in personal relationships.

The time on the side of the highway, standing outside of our wrecked car, knowing my only child had just this moment preceded me to eternity, her young daughter turning blue from internal injuries.

The moment when everything you had planned is changed forever.

When you change your plans

For his plans.

When you KNOW...


HE IS HERE!

That would be the blessing....