Guilty as Charged

 Joran van der Sloot has confessed to the killing of Natalie Halloway 18 years ago and is serving 46 years in a Peruvian prison for unrelated murder charges.  He is deemed a serial killer and at 36 will mostly spend his life in prison.  He confessed to her murder saying her body was thrown in the ocean.  He's guilty, but none of this would have come to light if he hadn't tried to  extort her mother for the information she so badly wanted.  But this does not bring this beautiful young woman back to her family.

I read as much as I could about him before I would lose my breakfast.  Reading all this literally made me quite upset.  He'll always be a murderer.  I don't care whether he had a come to Jesus life changing experience or not.  He'll forever be a murderer and nothing can change this fact.  I had a post written I've since deleted and decided to write this one in its place.  I get too Spiritual and too peach-y as my wife says and decided to just focus my attention on murderers in general using him as an example.  

Murderers have their come to Jesus moments and confess, but nothing changes the fact that a murderer is always a murderer forever.  In my Spirituality God can overlook any sin, but not murder.  A murderer can't bring back the dead.  Any sin can be forgiven and overlooked by God, but not murder.  There is nothing that can be done to bring back the dead.  Natalie's mom says regardless he took her family through hell, even though all fingers pointed at him.  

This is why the world can be a stressful place for me.  This world has too much murdering and way too much death.  But I won't get preach-y.  I'll simply state God does not care what a person does except for murder.  I don't care whether one believes in God or an afterlife.  Murder is just something no one can overlook.  At least I can't.  I saw his picture and stared into the eyes of a murderer.  There is nothing he can say or do to bring back that precious child.  

Families suffer at the hands of murderers and nothing changes this.  Anyone else can have their come to Jesus moment, but not murderers.  This is the simplicity of my theology.  I won't get preach-y here except to say for him nothing he does matters.  He took a life.  Nothing changes this.  A life taken is forever gone.  Nothing brings back a life.  

This is as preach-y as I'm going to get this morning.  It's because of people like murderers that cause me so much stress and there are just simply too many of them and more are made every day.  Because of these people I get stressed by the world.  And it is in part why I smoke a pipe and reflect on my own Spirituality.  I have done many things wrong, but I've never taken a Human Life including my own.  I simply need to relax and reflect on my own salvation and be thankful.  A pipe helps me do this.  This is as preach-y as I'm going to get and just reflect on just how much God's grace covers.  People will judge, yes.

More often than not the judgment of people is much more severe than God's.  I remember this.  I say people are not God.  If they were, no one would be in heaven.  Today I am smoking my Favola Churchwarden pipe with some Rum and Maple that pairs well with a cool morning here in Florida.  I thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave