ews is seldom pretty. And it is seldom about success and happiness. For example, 100 planes arriving safely at their tarmac destinations is not news. The one that crashes terribly in a ball of fire is.

In working for the Review, a general magazine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that does print news in addition to its devotionals and uplifting features, I must be aware of what is happening in the world; in the news. I cannot, and should not, turn a blind eye to the happenings around me, good or bad. And thus I am bombarded daily with events that tend to point out the horrors of sin, rather than the goodness of God. But still, as I look at the saddening accounts evidenced in weekly news magazines and my Internet news service, I realize that maxims can be assimilated—lessons learned—from even the most awful stories.

Here is one of those that touched my heart—and pained my mind—recently.

A 32-year-old Dutch truck driver, Perry Wacker, was convicted of manslaughter this past April. He was sentenced to 14 years in jail for the deaths of 58 Chinese immigrants. The Associated Press filed the story (“Trucker Found Guilty in Death of Immigrants” in London, England, on April 5), and described the immigrants’ deaths this way: “[The] slow suffocation in the back of a tomato truck cast horrifying light on the international trafficking of human beings.”

The report continues to explain the sentencing of Wacker and Ying Guo, 29, a Chinese interpreter who allegedly served as the victims’ British contact, after 13 hours of jury deliberation. The facts continue: “Shocked port officials in Dover, England, found the lifeless bodies packed with a shipment of tomatoes in a hot, nearly airless container that had just crossed the English Channel by ferry from Zeebrugge, Belgium, on June 18.

“The dead Chinese—54 men and four women—had paid tens of thousands of dollars each to Chinese smuggling gangs known as ‘snakeheads’ for the chance to begin a new life in the West. Only two migrants survived.

“Prosecutors said Wacker sealed the immigrants’ fate during the voyage when he closed the container’s only air vent to muffle any noise. He then allegedly went to the upper decks for a meal and a movie, without checking on his human cargo during the five-hour voyage.”

The story continued in inverted-pyramid style, describing the hot summer night, when the trapped people started to panic, the conditions inside the truck, exactly what port workers saw when they opened the compartment to unload the tomatoes, who were the other defendants on trial, and why this has been at least the third such shipment in the past six months.

Pure disgust burned in my mind over this travesty, this waste of human life. I felt contempt at the reported behavior of the trucker and others on trial. So far removed from the principles set forth in the Bible was this incident. I wanted to lambaste Wacker, to ask him: What happened to the golden rule (Matt. 7:12)? How could he let money in the first place, and disinterest later on, choke out the lives of fellow human beings? And what about choosing the way of truth (Ps. 119:30)? Whether he was a Christian or not aside, Wacker’s greedy, callous attitude and actions tortured those 58 Chinese to death.

If Wacker had had a smidgen of conscience, he wouldn’t have loaded all those people illegally on that truck. He would have stayed on the path of truth. And if he had had a bit of compassion, he would have seen to those people’s needs, rather than having a nice voyage, probably dreaming about how he’d spend his take.

In Wacker’s actions is a message for all of us. In everything we say or do we must ask for divine help in moving away from sinful inclinations. That is the only way we can practice God’s loving laws on this planet. When we don’t, we are as imprisoned as Wacker—and as doomed as the suffocated Chinese. We become the seed that fell among thorns, “those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature” (Luke 8:14, NIV).

Let us strive to be planted in the fertile soil of Christ. And let’s do more than that—let’s uproot the thorns.

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Kimberly Luste Maran, is an assistant editor of the Adventist Review