Who To Blame?

I come from a family who is pretty used to having someone at fault. That means, whenever something (no matter how small) goes wrong, even if no one asks who did it, someone is sure to pipe up with a "So and so did it!". It is always someone else's fault. Someone else is always to blame for something going wrong. But when something goes right...oh boy, well there are usually two or three people you can thank for it because they were allllll involved somehow!

My point, although stated rather silly, is this: is there always someone to blame? If so, who is it? Our natural instinct is to say that it wasn't us....it was always someone else who should get in trouble as opposed to us. How is this responsibility at all? How are we to be mature and responsible adults if all we ever do is push blame on others and take credit for the good things? How are we to learn and grow spiritually if we cannot acknowledge that we mess up and make mistakes? Maybe it was that so and so who messed up...but maybe it was you who told them that they needed to do that and so really you are the one to blame but you hide behind the curtain saying "Well they didn't *have* to do it! I just told them they should."

What kind of mature Christian of God would constantly be looking and faulting other people and not accepting their sin and error. Okay, not always sin...but if we blame others in the small stuff it will lead to blaming others for the larger stuff too. One of the first things that I noticed when reading through the catechism a couple weeks ago was this: the first thing they address is man's sin nature. You start reading it and BAM! they immediately hit you with the fact that you are completely sinful and can do *nothing* good on your own. We are totally depraved and can do no good! How depressing is that? The catechism does go on to talk about how that's why we need Christ so much, but it does impress me very much that the authors of the catechism were so wise about where they started...they started with the core of man...our sin and our fallenness.

Maybe we could argue that it's self-centered to start something so educational with man. You could say that we need to start with God and His word and law etc. But if we did that...man could escape with thinking that he isn't that bad off and isn't quite as sinful as he really is. So instead...we begin by telling man he is in a hopeless situation he is in. The catechism is divided into three sections: Man's Sin and Misery, Man's Deliverance, and Man's Gratitude. It is a teaching tool to guide and instruct us in how we are to view and live according to God's standards. I will just put a little bit of the first part of what I was talking about: Man's Misery.

#3 Q. How do you come to know your misery?
A. The law of God tells me.
#4 Q. What does God's law require of us?
A. Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22 - You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
#5 Q. Can you live up to all this perfectly?
A. No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.
#8 Q. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil?
A. Yes, unless we are born again, by the Spirit of God.

It then goes on to ask if God is unjust in requiring us to follow His law perfectly when we can't (No), asking if God will permit our disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished (No), asking if God is merciful (Yes) and going on to set the perfect stage for Christ. I am very impressed by how they just start with our sin. We cannot avoid sin without our Deliverer to be there for us and helping us through all the temptations that life sets before us. When it comes to sin or error, we are totally at fault...there is no need to name names and point fingers. What is required of us is to be responsible and step up to the plate and just say that it was our fault.

I have found this is one of the hardest things to do: to be able to say that it was my fault and I am the one to blame. But it is what God asks of me to do as a responsible and mature child of His. To be able to take upon myself the blame, but ask for forgiveness and then seek a better path with a better future...Christ and His glory. We are to look ahead to the magnificent glory that awaits us and seek to take be able to be the one at fault....face our duty, not shirk it. If we get in a habit of shirking that which is good or right then how long will it take till we are shirking away from God's law and God Himself?

Anyways, that was me rambling once again...just some random thoughts for this beautiful Tuesday that God has blessed us with! "This is the day that the Lord hath made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118:24 I pray that you are blessed with a joyful heart and perfect health! God bless you all! :)