Isn't it funny how nobody has to attend classes in order to learn how to engage in "the blame game"? It's just one of those human behaviors that comes as naturally as breathing...unfortunately for us all. Countless studies have been conducted over time on this issue of blame and what it's all about. I don't know why such studies have been pursued; I believe that understanding why we do it and continue to do it is very simple. We are masters at avoiding responsibility----especially when our actions (and lack of responsibility!) have led to negative consequences.
For far too many of us, feeling authentic guilt over what we have done "wrong" and taking responsibility for it is, in a word, nonexistent. When bad things happen to us, most waste no time finding something or someone else to blame. We find we have an alibi or an excuse for everything. Avoiding responsibility and denying reality becomes a way of life. Probably the saddest and yet funniest example of this I ever knew of was when a maid in a hotel was shown a video of herself stealing from the room she was hired to clean. As she looked at herself on the t.v. screen, taking what she took, and surrounded by the police...her only comment was as follows: "That's not me."
But it is me...and you...and all of us. We all have said things and done things that have made our lives miserable. But if we don't face these things (especially if we have done them over and over again over the course of time)...our future is destined to be nothing more than a repeat of the ugly parts of our past. After all, how can we lay down a burden we refuse to carry, let alone even see, in the first place?
Telling yourself the truth isn't going to kill you. The road to healing and health is honesty. The way to get and be cleansed is to admit openly our failures...and our sin. You can do it. I can do it. We all can do it.
Until next time....
