I Once Went To Court On Behalf Of Young Mother ...

I once went to court on behalf of young mother with an intellectual disability. She was a difficult person and the Department of Children’s Services had decided, in their wisdom, to apply the letter of the law and take away her child. It was my task to speak on her behalf and make a case for her, not on the basis of the letter of the law but on the spirit of the law, and convince the judge that a mother needs to keep her baby, intellectual disability or not, difficult person or not. We won! It did me a lot of good to fight against legalistic minded people who didn’t even know my client and actually win.

But the law is there, cold, hard, and objective. That’s why we find it difficult to obey. We have some bikies in the Whitsundays called "the Outlaws", and the name implies that they live outside the law.

What about you? Are you an "in-law" (someone who has a relationship with God based on the law alone) or an "outlaw" (someone who admits their relationship with God is broken because their behaviour is way out of line when it comes to the law)? We are all outlaws when it comes to the 10 commandments. They really seem so cold and hard and negative. Good principles but impossible to keep.