Back To Home Page To Archives - Spring of Life - H. Roger Bothwell Life is Full of Ironies In 1966 Ernesto Miranda's 1963 conviction for rape was overturned by the Supreme Court because he did not know he was protected by law from self- incrimination. From that time on police have been required to Mirandize or read one's legal rights to a person being arrested. Ernesto Miranda was retried and found guilty the second time and sent back to prison. In 1972 when he was thirty years old he was paroled and four years later he was stabbed to death in a bar fight. The man who murdered him was Mirandized. Life is full of ironies and most of them are internal to our being. For example, the harder one tries to remember a name the more difficult it is to retrieve, but as soon as we focus on something else the name comes to us. Then there is walking to a room for something and not remembering why we are there. So we go back to where we were sitting when we started the task and bingo we remember why we went to that room, except we are not there anymore and hope we can still remember as we try again. Jesus taught us some very interesting ironic lessons. He said things like, "The first shall be last." He taught us the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are those who serve others and are not the served. And one of the greatest ironies of all is He meant what He said. He did not intent us to water it down with our rationalizations but instead to live the abundant life by following His counsel. I'm Roger Bothwell and my address is roger.bothwell@verizon.net or 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453. Thank you for your support of our faith ministry. Past devotionals can be accessed at Archives