Bootstraps?

October 31st, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Another strange thing happened the other day.

In Littleton, NH (pop. 5, 928). Lisa Landon, 33, was one with well-known criminal tendencies. Stalking, possession of methamphetamine, etc., are the charges filed against her.

Well, she decided to take matters into her own hands for these pending cases.

Ms. Landon used the New Hampshire court system’s electronic system to file bogus documents, pretending to be a county prosecutor herself. And those documents declared that the drug possession and stalking case against her had been dropped!

Talk about audacity. And about taking matters into your own hands.

But it all came to light—or I should say, it all came to nought.

Apparently the good lady had been scheduled to undergo a competency evaluation by a state forensic examiner. And when that person saw the notation on Landon’s file that her case had been dropped, he queried officials wanting to know if that examination should still be conducted.

The grand jury also returned indictments of burglary and theft against Landon.

So now Ms. Landon is facing more charges, this time one of “false personation” and six of falsifying physical evidence.

Wrote Superior Court Judge David Anderson in a ruling regarding the case:

The file purported to contain a nolle prosequi [Latin for ‘we shall no longer prosecute’] filed by Assistant County Attorney Patrice Casian, but it quickly became evident to the State that the document, as well as other documents in the file, had been filed fraudulently.”

Trying to avoid prosecution by sidestepping the law. Trying to lift one up by one’s own bootstraps. (Or sola bootstrapsa, if you wanted a theological term for it.)

And, talking of theology, this principle operates for matters of salvation, too.

Humankind, all of us, by nature sinners, were due only the wrath of God against sin.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. …
We too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh,
indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath.
Ephesians 2:1, 3

Sinners can do nothing on their own to save themselves. Left to ourselves, there would have been no hope. Our sin would have kept us forever from the presence of a holy God.

But, praise God, he intervened!

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) …
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:4–5, 8–9

All because of divine kindness and love!

When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,
but according to His mercy … through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that … we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4–7

Great news! Good news! The best news!

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
Titus 2:11

The infamous Baron Munchausen may have pulled himself out of a swamp by his own hair, but folks, that’s impossible as far as sin and God are concerned. Instead, go for the cross!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

No more sola bootstrapsa!

SOURCE:
New Hampshire Union Leader