I have this picture hanging in my house of the Dirk Willems story. I relate it to you here because doing our part for peace does not always end with preferred outcomes, as in last week’sstory. Doing the right thing does not mean that right things will always happen to us.

Here is Joseph Liechty’s account originally published in Anabaptism Today, Issue 6, June 1994: “Why Did Dirk Willems Turn Back?”

Late in the winter of 1569, Dirk Willems of Holland was discovered as an Anabaptist, and a thief catcher came to arrest him at the village of Asperen. Running for his life, Dirk came to a body of water still coated with ice. After making his way across in great peril, he realized his pursuer had fallen through into the freezing water. Turning back, Dirk ran to the struggling man and dragged him safely to shore.

The thief catcher wanted to release Dirk, but a burgomaster—having appeared on the scene—reminded the man he was under oath to deliver criminals to justice. Dirk was bound off to prison, interrogated, and tortured in an unsuccessful effort to make him renounce his faith. He was tried and found guilty of having been re-baptized, of holding secret meetings in his home, and of allowing baptism there—all of which he freely confessed.

Persisting obstinately in his opinion, Dirk was sentenced to execution by fire. On the day of execution, a strong east wind blew the flames away from his upper body so that death was long delayed. The same wind carried his voice to the next town, where people heard him cry more than seventy times, “O my Lord; my God.”

The judge present was finally filled with sorrow and regret. Wheeling his horse around so he saw no more, he ordered the executioner, “Dispatch the man with a quick death.”

Bottom line? Peacemaking means doing our part regardless of the results. Justice is ultimately up to God.