Blogs from "Cops": That's Not Mine!

This is the third posting in a series I'm writing on things I've heard people say on the TV show "Cops". Today it's not about something just one person has said, but rather something I've heard countless people say in many, many segments of the show.

The situation may be that the cops have found a little bag of weed in a person's wallet. Or perhaps they have found a loaded handgun in the console of a person's car. Or maybe they have found a large amount of crack in a person's purse.

Inevitably, what that person will say is, "That's not mine! I've never seen it before in my life! I have no idea how it got there."

Obviously the person hopes to convince the cops that he or she is innocent, and that the incriminating bit of evidence was planted there by someone else. The person in question claims that he or she is just a victim of (somewhat unbelievable) circumstances, and has done nothing wrong.

Well, we may not be driving around with loaded handguns in the consoles of our cars or stashes of crack in our purses, or otherwise flagrantly breaking the law, but I think we still have something in common with all these people on "Cops." What we have in common with them is that it's pretty hard to admit to our sins, even to the little everyday ones.

When we're caught in the act of doing something wrong, even something small like being careless with someone else's things or not doing a chore we had promised to do, our first reaction is usually along the lines of "That's not mine!" In other words, we usually want to either say that we didn't do it, or else find some excuse for why what we did wasn't bad.

It's even more the case if what we have done wrong is big, such as betraying our spouse, or embezzling. We try to deny that we've done it; we say, "That's not mine! I've never seen it before in my life!" and hope that we will get away with it.

It's even true that we try to deny what we've done when we're faced with God, just as we do when we're faced with another person who is disappointed in us. We make excuses to God as well.

But when the cops hear people say, "That's not mine! I've never seen it before in my life!", those cops are never fooled. And God is not fooled either, when we make excuses to him.

But there is one difference between the cops and God. The cops are usually going to haul the "subjects" they're dealing with off to jail for what those subjects have done. God also knows that what we've done deserves punishment. But God decided to take the punishment instead of us. So because he did that, now all we have to do is be sorry for our sin (admitting that it is ours and that we have seen it before), and accept his love. Instead of trying to pretend that our sin is not our sin, if we acknowledge that it is ours, we can be rid of it forever! That's a pretty good deal.