The Blame Game

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (ESV)

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Let me begin by apologizing. I am sorry that you haven’t seen any devotions from me this week. The truth is, I have been sick.  I am reluctant to mention that because the first question people ask is this one, “Did you have COVID 19?”  No, I didn’t.  I was just sick.  Of course, inevitably comes the second, or perhaps third question – “How did you get sick?” “Where did you ‘catch’ it?”  At least that is the one I always ask myself – “How did I get this?”  I was thinking about that this morning and realized that this question is a “blame” question.  This question asks, “Whose fault is this?”  Ask this question and I have started playing the “blame game.”

Have you ever thought about how often we play this game?  Casting blame, finding fault seems to be the sport of our time.  You hear it all the time on the news, especially right now – whose to blame for this virus?  Whole governments are pointing the finger at one another.  Its this country or that one?  Who is at fault for the economy?  Its this party or that one… it’s the president or the congress… the governors.  Don’t misunderstand me.  I know that part of finding a vaccine for the virus is knowing how and where it started. 

However, this isn’t the only place we play this game.  We do it in our daily lives.  Couples in marriage trouble spend a lot of time in counseling… or in divorce proceedings finding fault… pointing the finger at… blaming one another.  How much time is spent in the business world… in a church… on any staff finding fault with each other? Isn’t this what lawsuits are all about – finding someone to blame and making them pay for it?

Ask yourself, why do we do this?  For me, far too often its to avoid my own responsibility in a matter.  Taking responsibility can be very hard to do. While we lived in Germany, my nice camera was stolen out of my office at the church, while I was in the sanctuary leading Sunday worship.  Terrible, right?  Who could be so brazen?  Well the church’s insurance would not pay anything on the theft.  Why?  Because in Germany I was considered at fault because I didn’t lock the door to my office that day.  Please know that I wasn’t pleased with that.  I still believe the insurance should have paid something.  However, I must also admit that, at least in part, I was at fault too. I should not have left the door to my office unlocked.  I never left it unlocked again.

A politician once asked, “Imagine how much we could accomplish together if we weren’t so worried about who got the credit?”  Change that a little bit - Imagine what good could happen if we weren’t so concerned about blaming each other?”  The truth is that in life there is almost always plenty of blame to go around.  Even if I am not wrong in one situation, I have been wrong in a dozen others.  Solomon is correct in Ecclesiastes 7 – “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”

Imagine what the world would be like… imagine what God would do if each of us gave up finding fault… if instead we each took responsibility.  God makes a great promise about this.  “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  But shouldn’t we pay for our wrongs?  Yes.  But that is the wonderful thing about our God – In Jesus He already has paid for our wrongs.  By the death of Jesus, God Himself bore the punishment for all our faults.  We are free to take responsibility for our wrongs without fear of God’s anger. 

Oh, there may be some temporary costs.  You may have to pay someone back for something you did, or apologize or lost a job.  But as far as your relationship with God – You are forgiven.  You are free eternally.  What’s more there are also great benefits for this life.  When couples in a marriage stop placing blame, each start taking responsibility for their own wrongs – healing can begin in that marriage.  Right now, it would seem to me, that far more important than blaming each other for this virus, is that together we all take responsibility for finding a cure or a vaccine.  I could go on… but you get my point.  Imagine what could happen if we all stopped playing the blame game and started taking responsibility.