In today’s culture, it can take a nano-second to figure out everyone blames someone else for their problems. Just listen to television and radio, read a book or newspaper, and you will quickly surmise that’s a fact. The blame game has been occurring since time began.
Remember comedian Flip Wilson’s old line, “The devil made me do it”? He obviously had done something bad, but instead of taking the blame, he pointed an accusing finger at “the devil.” We all laughed, not necessarily at Flip’s routines, but at ourselves playing the most popular of all games – The Blame Game.
In Genesis 3:11-13, scripture says, “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
I’ve always found it interesting that God asked Adam who it was that told him they were naked. God surely knew the answer, but wanted Adam (and Eve) to come clean. When things have not gone my way, I have often wanted to blame someone or something else – anyone or anything — to take the heat off of me. I am just not willing or able to take responsibility for my own action or inaction.
Adam and Eve defied God’s commands and things started to fall apart for them. Then God calls them to account. Adam blames the woman. She made me do it. Since then, mankind has been passing the buck!
Then Eve responds, The devil made me do it, exhibiting the first victim mentality. I cannot be held responsible for my actions: I am the victim of other forces.
The author Wayne Dyer writes:
“All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you…You may succeed in making another feel guilty of something by blaming him; you won’t succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy.”
Humans are very clever in ways to place the blame in someone else’s court. Easy to do and an easy way out. This way, we do not have to take responsibility. For some of us this is the way we live our lives, day in, day out—a very stressful, anxious way of living.
But when this practice becomes a daily habit, it stops being funny and starts being phony. We become escape artists, dodging the responsibility of our own disobedience, that we carry the thing too far. It’s the proverbial conspiracy mentality.
Jesus says there are two realities you can buy into: either judgement and condemnation or giving and forgiving. Jesus tells us the currency that God deals in: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). Don’t blame others.
What do you think?
Learn more about Cary John Efurd Ministries by liking our ministry Facebook page and downloading our FREE mobile app from App Store or Google Play. Once downloaded, allow notifications to keep you up to date on what’s happening in Cary John Efurd Ministries.
