Who Can I Blame?

More than once since I started writing this column I have received an email from Kathleen saying, “I don’t have an article for you yet.”  I’ve had to drop everything and go to writing. I don’t want to disappoint the five or six folks who read me every week.

            Why have I forgotten? Who can I blame?  After all, that is our first option, right? Blame someone else.  “The reporter took my comments out of context.”  “My predecessor left me a mess.”  And of course, Geraldine from the old Flip Wilson Show used to say, “The devil made me do it.”

            Of course, that’s nothing new.  I mean, blaming someone else.  After all, when caught after the first sin ever Adam said, “The woman you gave me,” blaming Eve, and implicating God Himself.  In other words, it has always been our first tendency to put the blame on others.

            I have a much better option for you when you find yourself in trouble.  In 1 John we are reminded that we are all sinners.  1 John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And then the solution follows in the very next verse.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

            Those verses remind me of something that is truly good news. God knows that we are sinners. He knows that we will mess up. But He has a plan to forgive us and set things right. Paul wrote to the Romans, “God commended his love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” What good news that is! 

            “When you mess up, ‘fess up.”  That’s what my dad told me.  And that’s the teaching of the Bible.  It is the only way to be at peace with God.  I pray you will do just that.