The Blame Game

We all do it every once in a while. Something doesn't happen the way we had hoped it would, a dream isn't fulfilled, or we experience a difficulty in a relationship or a circumstance. Our first tendency is...place the blame on someone or something. It can't have been our fault. We couldn't be...responsible!

Responsibility is not a difficult term to understand. Neither is irresponsibility. Because we can see both of those terms in other people's lives very easily. But it is very difficult to see it in the mirror.

An amazing transformation has occurred in American culture over the past 50 years. Andy Stanley puts it this way in his sermon entitled Taking Responsibility For Your Life: "...there is a new twist on civil rights that goes something like this: The Constitution has given me certain rights; therefore, I have the right to be irresponsible, and you don’t have the right to hold me accountable. I have the right to do whatever I want to do and say whatever I want to say and act any way I want to act. You don’t have the right to hold me responsible. At the same time, you are responsible to clean up the mess that I create through my irresponsibility. You are responsible to foot the bill that I have created through my irresponsibility. As an American citizen, my civil rights give me the opportunity to act irresponsibly, but you don’t have the right or the responsibility to hold me accountable."

The problem with irresponsibility is, when I act irresponsible, someone has to pay the price. Parents understand this. When a child doesn't take responsibility to keep their room clean, the parent pays the price...they have to clean it.

The same principle is true in every arena of life. This week we are going to be exploring the temptation to blame others for our irresponsibility and the importance of taking responsibility for our own lives, regardless of how others act or what circumstances may come our way.