Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The Blame Game

The quip, "Take it like a man - blame it on a woman," goes back to The Garden of Eden, where Adam tried to lay the blame for his sin on Eve: “The woman you put here with me —she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Gen 3:12).  Better yet, he was implicating God as he charged, "you [God] put her here with me."

Sorry gals, I'd like to let you off the hook but the woman didn't stand up any better than the man, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate" (vs. 13).  I don't know that the snake tried to pass the blame on anyone, he may have said, "Hey, I'm a snake!  What did you expect?"

What I do know is that blaming others instead of taking responsibility for one's sin or woeful state of being has not lost any momentum over the millenniums. We blame our parents for our bad attitudes, poverty for our anger, victims for our abusive behavior, our bosses for our poor performance - you name the sinful nature or act and we'll name someone to blame, someone else, that is. 

The problem with that, however, apart from not being true as we are free moral beings vested with the personal power to choose regardless of pressure to one side or another, is that forward progress or healing comes from confession (see James 5:16).  

Denial keeps us under the power of our sin as we affirm our helplessness to change due to the influence of others. Conversely, confession affirms our God-given power to choose other and better. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13). 

Jus' Sayn. 

No comments:

Post a Comment