He's Bigger Than My Jury Duty Summons: Part 2

You can read part 1 here.

"From providences past saints argue 

to fresh and new ones to come."

~John Flavel

Having not filled out my jury questionnaire in a timely manner, I was told I forfeited my right to request a medical excusal. So even though I had one from my OB, I didn't present it when I first showed up at court.

God was exceedingly gracious that first day, answering every little prayer I offered up and providing for me in unexpected ways. The second day started with a Crohn's attack, though, and I knew I was going to have to let the court know what was going on, even if they didn't grant an excusal.

I tortured myself with questions about timing. Should I give my medical letter to the court administrator when she checked us in, or should I request to speak to the judge and deal with him directly? God answered this one, too, ever so clearly--the computer malfunctioned for check-in, so my only option was to speak to the judge.

After hearing details of the case we were to serve on, the judge asked if anyone needed to speak to him privately. Thankfully, there were just three of us, and we were put in a room to wait.

I didn't understand I would be speaking to the judge with the attorneys and the defendant present. But when the judge discovered I was before him because of a medical issue, he tried to deal as privately with me as possible in a room full of people. :)

After reading the letter, the judge asked if I could serve if he was willing to work with me. He'd give me bathroom breaks whenever I needed them. I would simply signal the bailiff for a time out. I said I could (though I was wondering just how invisible one can be from a jury box while waving one's hand and begging for a break).

The judge then had to share our conversation with the attorneys present. He was stumped as to how to do this discreetly, and I so appreciated his desire to not embarrass me. I quickly let him know it was fine, and I turned to the attorneys and told them I have Crohn's disease.  Right away both of them nodded. They were familiar with it. The first attorney started to assure me that the judge would work with me in whatever way, and then the second attorney spoke up. He was concerned about the effects of serving, considering the complications from the Crohn's, on my pregnancy, and explained they were fine with my not serving.

So the judge looked at me and said, "We're giving you veto power." It was up to me.

Now I'm an indecisive person. Standing right there I was torn between wanting to serve if I could, and yet, knowing the enormous stress I would be dealing with while trying to manage my Crohn's and pregnancy for the next three months of jury duty because no matter how much the judge wanted to work with me, my Crohn's doesn't cooperate with anyone (other than God). It has a mind of it's own.

But God spared me from hemming and hawing in front of them, and I simply said, "I think it would be best for me not to serve right now, considering everything."

And they were all fine with that. Done. You're excused. No, we don't need your medical letter. We'll take your name off the roll.

I breathed a massive sigh of relief and left.

These posts haven't been about how to get excused from jury duty. The focus is how God takes care of every concern, every detail, just like a loving Father. I'm grateful to Him for the joy of seeing His hand in every moment of those two days. It only encourages me that much more to look for His hand in every moment of all of my days.

John Flavel writes in The Mystery of Providence that we're not to just glance over God's mercies to us. We're to meditate "intensively" on them. We're to "dive as far as we can; and to admire the depth, when we cannot touch the bottom."

Those two days of jury duty were a sort of boot camp on how to do just that--meditate intensively on God's providential care.

May God give us all eyes to see anew His works of providence and hearts that meditate on them deeply, overflowing with thankfulness for His goodness to us.

"For in all providences, especially in some, He comes near to us. These visitations of God preserve our spirits (Job 10:12), and it is a wonderful condescension in the great God to visit us to often, 'every morning and...every moment' (Job 7:18). But not to take notice of it is a vile and brutish contempt of God (Isa 1:3; Zeph 3:2)."
~John Flavel

With love,
Trisha