the eternal blame

"The woman you gave me…"..."The serpent tricked me… "

During my teenage years when I was training to be an insufferable jerk, in the middle of an argument with my mom I’d snap back, “Hey, I didn’t ask to be here”—meaning that all my problems in life, which at the point had mostly to do with school dress codes and raging hormones, were the result of my parents deciding on a third child. All my issues were conveniently blamed on them for having that little of bundle of joy: me. If I weren’t here, I would have no problems. My mom would answer that existential conundrum with this: “Well, I didn’t ask to be here either, so don’t give me any lip.” We were the Simpsons of Kentucky. The truth was, I was unwilling to accept responsibility for my behavior. I was a blamer.

What’s worse, it’s easy to carry that in subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways into our spiritual lives. One day a guy dropped in the Vineyard and told me he’d been “fighting a Jezebel spirit all day” that was causing problems for him. I told him he needed to get a job.

Truth is, I still wrestle with blaming after 32 years of following Jesus. And it may be that owning responsibility can be trickier in a high grace environment. Maybe.

Liberals blame neo-cons. Republicans blame Democrats. Arabs blame Jews. Calvinists blame Arminians. Donald blames Rosie. Evangelicals blame everybody. I like what Christian apologist/philosopher G. K. Chesterton wrote in response to an article in the London Times titled What’s Wrong With the World? In a letter to the editor he simply said, Dear sirs, I am. Yours truly, G. K. Chesterton.

Ouch.

People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed? (Proverbs 19:3 Message Bible)