One effect of the “holiday season” is to leapfrog several weeks of time in a single instant and leave us scratching our heads wondering, “but I thought Thanksgiving was just a few days ago?” when it’s actually now 2024.

This is what happened to me Tuesday morning. “Darn,” I said, looking at my calendar, “today is Day 90 of mum’s probate and I have a report due with the Clerk of the Court.”

No matter that there’s a county courthouse 100 yards from our front door here in Tarboro, mum’s probate is with Wake County. Besides, some of my paperwork is in Wake Forest.

So I grabbed a folder, jumped in my little VW, and zoom-zoomed east, finally arriving at the imposing monolith on Fayetteville Street in Raleigh just after 11:00.

I remembered the words of the estate lawyer I talked with in October, “It takes six weeks to get an appointment and they don’t cater to walk-ins.”

So of course I walked in, and after a short wait I had the full attention of a very helpful young man who walked me through the 90-day filing.

It is my firm belief that if you do the following, people always tend to respond well; this is especially true if you are bumping up against bureaucracy:

• Dress nicely.
• Ask for help, don’t tell them what to do.
• Smile and make eye contact.
• If possible, make them laugh early on.
• Ask their name and tell them yours.
• Thank them before they have even done anything.
• Have your paperwork well organized.
• Be patient and not in a hurry.

The guy behind the counter, John, is working with the Clerk of the County Court between college and law school. He wants to learn about the practical interface between the law and regular people. “You couldn’t be in a better place,” I said. “This is where the rubber meets the road.”

It’s Not The Law!

What the clerk’s assistant is doing helps people navigate the challenges of our often fractious, often unmanageable legal waters. I am sure we all remember the following Charles Dickens quote from Oliver Twist: “If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass — a idiot…”

Well, it is people like John – and hopefully even more so once he graduates from law school and begins his career in earnest – who help to make sure that the law is not an ass. Because it really isn’t; or at least it doesn’t have to be.

I believe this is a moment in our history when we absolutely must respect the vision of this nation’s founders, such as John Adams, who famously voiced that “We are a nation of laws and not of men.” When the rule of law is followed, even if it gets in the way of what we want to see happen in the moment, the long-term effect is to prevent lawlessness and tyranny.

The law is not one thing for one person and something else for another. We sidestep the rule of law at our own peril.

This is why, I believe, Jesus was such a genius when it came to his relationship to the law. “Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets,” he said. “I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).

How to do this? Well we could do well to begin with a passage Jesus was very familiar with, “Do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”

Meanwhile, I will finish all the details of this probate thing and continue to live into this truth: “Because Jesus has set me free I cannot help but act with love and justice and mercy!” – DEREK

(why I always park on the roof)