Innocence

Last night I watched a very interesting 20/20 after watching the opening of the Olympics 2012. The story was about a former mayor of a small town, who was now the wife of the principal of a high school who survived her son’s death at 14 years old to go on to be accused of raping her daughter’s former boyfriend of 14 years old.

            The story was told by the former mayor in the arms of her principal husband and supported by her daughter. The young boy involved never accused the mother, the town accused her after the young boy bragged about the incident to his friends and it went viral on the Internet. The former mayor took a polygraph and proved she was telling the truth, but still no one believed her. It was the dirt they wanted to believe.

            After watching the story, the young boy still contends that the sexual liaison happened. I don’t think it did. I think he made it up to impress his friends and get the attention of his divorcing parents, and believes it happened himself. No one gave him a polygraph. I guess he was too young and innocent.

            I remember being 14 and I was hardly innocent. I have had male friends tell me that they have had sex with adults at that age, and it was their choice. They enjoyed it, and they were no different mentally as a result. It wasn’t like there was any force involved in this situation, if it actually happened. Some fathers even would take their child to a prostitute at that age as a right of passage. No one convicts the fathers.

            We’re not talking Penn State here. No one forced anyone to do anything. That was a travesty. We’re talking the natural proclivity of a young man moving forward with his sexuality, testing his manhood. What exactly is innocence and how do we measure it in the eyes of the law?

            I had a lawyer friend who used to tell me that it is so scary to be a lawyer, because it is then you realize how hard it is to be accused of something. It is your responsibility to then prove your innocence. It isn’t the states or anyone else’s responsibility. So, if you don’t happen to have a foolproof alibi, you could possibly be put in jail for something you didn’t do. And it happens all the time, even for murder.

            I remember the story of the mother accused of killing her baby, when a dingo actually ate her baby as she thought. It was awful how she had to grieve the loss of her child and deal with the rigors of trial at the same time, when in fact, she was innocent.

            But what about the innocent? How do we protect them?

            And in truth, how do we protect the innocence in our own souls? That is the real story. We don’t seek to find partners to love anymore, because we have been hurt too badly in the past. Our hearts don’t think it is possible to find love. We are no longer innocent enough to seek love, to seek what is rightfully ours to seek.

            I know of hundreds of people in this position. So, they settle for lots of friends and sex once in a while with someone he/she doesn’t know to get over the need for intimacy. Then they move on. No close, heart-filled relationships are ever going to happen to that noninnocent soul. The hurt could be too deep.

            I get it. I have been there. I know.  But what if, you have been through all of that hurt to prepare you for that one right relationship. And that relationship is waiting in the wings for you to get the courage to open your heart to innocence once again?

            I’m not Svengali, but I do know that only those who are open and ready, can receive of the good that God has for us. Try opening your hands and arms this week and see what God has for you to receive.