"NOT GUILTY"

This past week I have seen images on TV that I will stick with me for a long time.  Images of a disturbed young man who calls himself "the joker."  Another image of a bronze statue of a football icon being taken down.......that reputation, shattered.  Images of innocence lost.......evil prevailing.  Yet there was one image that kept nagging at me.  I hate to say it, but while my heart was pondering the sadness and despair of the world's events, my brain was starting to become desensitized to the images.  For whatever reason my brain wouldn't let go of the brief image I saw one day, amidst all of the sad ones. 

When I think of the word "free" all kinds of images come to my mind.  Freedom is sometimes a political word.  A word to get me all stirred up and patriotic.  On the other hand, the word "guilty" puts me on the defense.  "It wasn't my fault.....Not going to take the blame for that one.......Not guilty."  How would you feel if you were wrongly accused of not just any crime, but murder.  Would you rant and rave and declare your innocence to anyone who would listen?  Of course you would.  We all would.  You would want to "clear your name."  Afterall, what do we tell our children....."At the end of the day, all you have is your good name."  William Dillon was sent to prison when he was 21 years old.  Convicted of killing another person.  He spent 27 years in prison before being declared NOT GUILTY with the help of the Innocence Project.  It's a long long story but basically he was convicted on DNA evidence and it wasn't his DNA.  He was an aspiring baseball player when he was convicted at age 21, so when he was freed from prison one of his requests was that he be allowed to sing the National Anthem at a a Major League Baseball game.

The image that keeps nagging at me is what he proudly displayed on his shirt.  Two words right across his heart proudly declaring "NOT GUILTY."  The man has spent over half of his life behind bars convicted of a crime that he was innocent of.  It doesn't go unnoticed that he didn't lose faith in his country......only in the justice system that failed him.  So I have been asking myself all week why this short little "blip" that I saw on the news keeps popping up in my mind.  It's the "NOT GUILTY" that he so proudly wore across his heart for the world to see and witness.  His name is clear, his concious is clear, his reputation is clear, his record is clear.  And he wants everyone to know it.

 I want to wear that mantra across my heart every day.  I want to display it with pride just like William Dillon did when he sang of the "land of the free and the home of the brave."  What if we all boldly stated and lived  the fact that as Christians "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me FREE from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offereing." Romans 8:1-3 

Because my sin was paid for by an innocent man I want a t-shirt like that to wear every single day.

"NOT GUILTY"