Facing down the final month before I turn 50, thinking about the Parable of the Talents in Matt. 25 and Easter tomorrow, my thoughts today surround being at fault.
We live in a world that wants someone to blame for everything. Unfortunately, or mirror doesn't always allow that person to be someone else. Even when it is clearly someone else's fault, God admonishes us to 'forgive, even as He has forgiven us."
I know that there are many situations in my life that didn't work out the way I intended. I know that I am not beyond criticism. But there is a component of the blame game that hardly ever gets noticed.
The one 'at fault' most of the time is the one who instigates the situation in the first place.
Ultimately, God created everything, so in a sense everything is His fault. God handles this burden easily. He didn't create bad situations. He created opportunities for really good situations - even in the face of tragedy and suffering.
Since we are created in God's image, it is our bias to use our imagination and faith to create situations in and around our own lives. We plan, try, dream, work and invest ourselves in all kinds of things that we think will make our lives and the lives of the people we care about better. This is a good thing. It's how we're designed to work.
Sometimes, our motives are not pure. Thus we have God's word and spirit to create in us a pure, clean heart. There is a remedy designed to show us how to create better.
Sometimes, our motives are pure. But through a lack of knowledge or perspective, we start a cause/effect reaction that doesn't end well. We learn from those experiences and accumulate a resource over time called Wisdom to protect us from making those mistakes again. There is a remedy for those who lack wisdom.
Sometimes, our motives are pure and our actions are wise. But someone else involved in the equation screws things up. Then they turn around and tell us it's our fault. We need to learn to see through that. When our hearts a re pure and our hands are clean, we approach God boldly, full of confidence in Him. There is a remedy for those who do right and are called wrong at the throne of Grace.
Sometimes our motives are pure, our actions are wise and the whole universe works together on our behalf. But some random something beyond our control thwarts our efforts and steals our outcome. Call it bad luck. In those times, when the rest of the world tells us it's our fault, we just have to say, "Shit Happens," pick ourselves up and try again.
The only way I will ever get through life and be able to say that nothing is my fault is if I don't do anything to start with. That is the sin of the wicked and lazy servant. Of that, I am absolutely Not Guilty. And the proof is all of the people who think it's my fault!