Uncertainty and Acceptance

By David Hall

Some of us just love meeting new people.  However, many others find introductions a confronting experience. Of course, the difference in these two responses has a lot to do with personality.  The sanguine person will come into a room full of people with a demeanour that says, ‘Oh, there you are!  Tell me about yourself’.  A melancholic person, on the other hand, will be wondering, ‘how do these people perceive me?’ 

Regardless of our temperament, when we encounter someone new, we usually seek to discover where this person may fit in relation to ourselves.  Are they someone we may have to deal with?  If so, will we feel comfortable  around them, or will they be an annoyance or even a threat?  Will they encroach on our personal space or will they respect our comfort zone?  Above all, what is this person’s agenda towards me?  Will I be accepted by them or will I sense that horrible feeling of rejection?

Such are the uncertainties of a new encounter.  We want to know the lay of the land before we commit ourselves to any level of relationship – and that is fair enough.  We yearn for friendship and rewarding relationships.  Unfortunately, in a society of ever increasing uncertainties, our insulation from one another is subtly increasing over time.  Our personal defence mechanisms can run at high levels, especially if we have been hurt in the past.
However, what we really need is more genuine relationship, not isolation.  We need a place where we can find trust and give trust, where we can know genuine love, and respond in kind.

But where can we find such a place as this?
The answer is surprisingly simple, and has been around for nearly 2000 years.  There is a place of genuine love and relationship into which all, without exception, are invited.  A fellowship actually exits that functions by giving rather than getting. 

The founder of this fellowship paid the ultimate price to establish it – He laid down His life!  Now that’s real GIVING!  Real LOVING! The amazing thing is that He wanted to!  He was not forced to die, but He willingly gave Himself because He loved us all.  He also knew that physical death is not the end of existence, for there is a particular kind of life that supersedes death.  By giving His own natural life He was also making His own supernatural life available to us all. 
By now you will realize that I am talking about Jesus Christ.  He died to provide for each of us a place in the family of God – a place of acceptance as sons and daughters of God. 
ACCEPTANCE!  That’s the basis for real relationship. 

The apostle Paul said that Jesus ‘has made us accepted in the Beloved’.  Notice the word ‘Beloved’ here, has a capital letter.  It signifies that group of people who have been joined to Christ in such close relationship as to be also described as ‘members of His body’.  By being joined to Christ, they are also joined to each other in the same life and love that is in Him.

This group is the ‘Beloved’.
Acceptance into the ‘Beloved’ is not just a self-styled acceptance of wounded people who have negotiated a common ground amongst all our hurts and defence mechanisms.  It is the full participation in a community where we are being freed from fear - where we are being healed from the scars of our past, and are experiencing a growing confidence and desire to give to others. 

Such a change is evidence of new life coming into us, life that is only available from Christ Himself within the community of those who have given themselves to Christ. 
The great news is that the invitation is open to all – not just to a special group of high performers or ‘good’ people.  (In fact it is the high performers and ‘good’ people who find it hardest to receive the unconditional acceptance that is offered to us in Christ.) 
But the invitation must be received and acted upon if we are to find true ‘acceptance in the Beloved’.  Our first step is to listen with our heart to the message that God loves us.  (Of course, this will also mean that we acknowledge our alienation from God.)  Then we must seek out His people among whom we can meet Christ, commit ourselves to Him, and hear His word that will begin changing us.  The root and scars of our alienation can begin to be healed and participation in God’s love and life can be real for us too.