Judging Erik

I have been Tivoing Judging Amy for a few months now. There are two episodes on each day on TNT (We Know Drama). I have really enjoyed listening to the liberal (yet well meaning) writers address issues they see in society.

Today's first episode was the series finale. Amy has had six years on the bench working her magic with creative sentences for "delinquent" juveniles. Creative sentences based on the assumption that children who have gone wrong so early deserve a second chance to prove their potential. In recent episodes Amy has been working directly with a fifteen year old gang girl abandoned by her mother. Amy has been supervising Graciella's rehabilitation and encouraged by her progress. Graciella was betrayed, however, by a witness to a crime she was implicated in and later sent to adult detention where she was killed by an opposing gang member. This death was the last straw for Amy, who has become disillusioned with the lack of public support for programs to rehabilitate juvenile offenders. A political strategist hired to find a crusader for juvenile justice reform has been courting Amy and with the Graciella incident, Amy is ready to fight for change. Amy marches up to Capitol Hill and delivers the speech that will set her on the national stage and pave the way for a Senate seat race.

I am acutely aware of symbolism the past few weeks. Here we have a woman embarking on a crusade for a cause she knows well and can see the weaknesses in. Certain life events (open doors, if you will) have her questioning her degree of change effectiveness in her current role and finding mounting affirmation of her potential to effect change to a greater degree in a new role.

I asked a trusted pastor friend whether a pastor should have pet issues, a chip on his or her shoulder. I had been under the impression that a minister of the gospel should not have an axe to grind in order to be the most effective minister he or she could be. This pastor friend said that the crusading pastors were the most effective. They are motivated. They have been burdened with a specific ill within the church. No one can effect change like the person who has been exposed first hand to the destructive power of a warped relation to God.

Something is on the horizon.

God has been using situations this week to prepare me for a change and I can sense the precipice below. Uncharted, demanding territory is ahead.