Do you want love or acceptance?

I was watching CSI Miami the other night. The groom and I used to watch all the time just to poke fun and David Caruso’s overacting, but we’ve fallen behind. So I caught an episode last night. It was all could do not to fall off the bed laughing. I know that’s probably not Christian of me, but he’s a horrible actor! Anyway, there was a scene at the end that struck me just now. Yes, it came to me now (I guess I was too busy laughing last night).

The story is about a woman who was raped and who killed her attacker (that’s not funny, Caruso’s over-acting is). There’s more to the story, but that’s the jist. I missed something at the beginning, but I think she and Caruso’s character (Horatio) have some sort of connection outside of the case (friend of the family or something). Anyway, at the end she confesses to the murder (of course only after the evidence has pointed to her and Horatio comes to confront her). She weeps as she explains how and why she did it. It’s very sad. You can’t help but feel for this woman.

I was glad to see they didn’t seem to accept her story as excuse, but allowed it only as a reason and moved on. She asked Horatio with tear-filled eyes, “What’s going to happen to me?”. He paused in his annoying seconds-too-long way and said, “I don’t know, but I’ll walk you through it.”

I was chatting with a friend this morning about the church, Christians, and love. The issue of acceptance versus love arose and it sparked this scene in my mind. Most people today want off the hook with acceptance. They aren’t really seeking love, at least not in the sense that love was first created to be. Most people today seem to want general acceptance for who they are, with little if any limitations. Comparing it to this scene, the woman really wanted to be understood for her crime and not face the consequences because in her mind she was justified. Many people think that today, that even IF their sin could be called sin, they shouldn’t suffer any punishment because in some way, they’re justified (because God made them that way – or some other cop out). God’s love is about growth and change…

“^14^ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. ^15^ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ^16^ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” [ "Ephesians 4:14-16](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%204:14-16&version=31 ]

But God’s love is more like Horatio’s (though more Holy and less transparent). God says, “I KNOW what’s happened to you in your life. I KNOW how you were created. And I KNOW what’s going to happen to you, but I WILL WALK YOU THROUGH IT.” God is our ever-present friend, who loves us more than our best friend on earth. He loves us so much that he hates who we are JUST ENOUGH to change us into who we were meant to be. Would you rather have a god who ACCEPTS you just as you are and wants to leave you that way, or THE God who LOVES you SO MUCH He wanted to die a torturous death to save you and make you who you’re supposed to be?

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” [John 3:17]

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