Today's Journal

TO BLAME OTHERS II

Yesterday I covered the sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve. They desired and ate fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that the Lord God had told them not to eat. Upon being discovered, they start the chain of blame… the woman… you (God) gave me, and then the serpent.
The accusations begin from our guilt and shame. We will accuse whoever is necessary to try and ‘look good’ and without sin… with whatever we can come up with, ‘Wow, you know I was having a tough time at work and was having a lot of stress and I was just not myself… and that’s why that happened.’ That may all be true… but the blame is on circumstances and not on personal decisions and responsibility. In other words, it’s someone else’s fault that I did what I did.
Why does God allow certain things to happen… like Garden of Eden deal, children getting sick, loss of job, car blows up, 401-k turned into a Zucchini Casserole, …etc. It must all be God’s fault for allowing such things to happen. There are no easy answers to this…but blaming others is rarely the answer.
I think it is shame and guilt generated by pride that causes most mental steps toward blaming others for our situations. When we won’t fess-up… we will blame others…and God.
“And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” Jesus