july 5th, 2004, senior airman andrew schliepsiek and his wife jamie were stabbed to death in their home at robins airforce base near macon, georgia. staff sergeant jason king was also stabbed the same night but lived to tell his story.
october 15th, 2005, senior airman andrew witt was sentenced to death for the pre-meditated murders and the pre-meditated attempt on ssgt jason king's life.
now why on earth would i choose to write about this?
*let me preface this by stating that i'm not here to question the death penalty; to ask whether or not there are scriptural grounds for it; or to point fingers and open wounds.
i write about it because it broke my heart.
see, i went to high school with andrew witt. i played on the same high school basketball team before he transfered schools. 8 years ago, we sat in many of the same classes. today, he sits on death row and i sit at a computer. but what really breaks my heart is that i see what his family is going through right now. i see it because i know them.
no one denies his guilt. he was there that night. he did it. the witness lived to testify. there is no justifiable motive for murder. murder is what it is. killing an innocent human being is a terrible tragedy and in many areas, in accordance with the law, it is punishable by death.
my first reaction to the initial news that andrew witt had murdered a couple, was to google andrew and jamie schliepsiek. what i came across were some harsh words leveled at their murderer. and my heart broke.
it didn't break for andrew witt. it broke for those who had lost their friends; their son; their daughter; their sister; their brother.
i saw pain. and i hurt for them. i couldn't and cannot hurt with them.
now today, my heart has broken again. i've taken andrew witt's brother out to dinner. his name is sam. he's in the sixth grade. and he knows. i've sat with his sister at high school soccer games. her name is katie. she is in the eigth grade. and she testified at her brother's death penalty hearing.
my heart breaks because i can see the fall-out from poor decision making. and i am determined, more than ever, to live a revolutionary christian life.
andrew witt. was raised in a christian home. went to a christian school. attended a christian college. entered the military. and made some poor decisions.
i want, so badly, to be more than someone who shakes their head and questions the parents; because his parents didn't make his decisions for him.
i want to live an extraordinary life that glorifies God; not a life that leaves people questioning Him.
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1 comment:
wow. That was not an easy post to read. There are times in our life when we get to look at pain from the other perspective. When you are sitting next to a girl who is gfoing through the pain and heart break of realizing that she didn't want the abortion after all...you become less likely to be the one throwing the stones at her. I think it is detremental to our hearts becoming one with Christ's heart for us to experience and know the pain that Christ feels and felt for each and every human soul. For Andrew Witt's soul. For the soul of those who have done thinks our hearts cannot even imagine doing...but for whatever reason, they did. That soul is as valuable to God as my soul. Infact, I would argue that God is more passionate about losts souls finding Him then any thing else.
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