The Blame Game and a Homeless Heart

It's not my fault.

It’s not my fault.

Oh how we love playing the Blame Game. It all started in the Garden of Eden. Fortunately, one king resisted the urge and took responsibility for his mistakes. King David made some extremely bad choices—not being where he should have been, adultery, cover-up and even conspiracy to commit murder. And he pretty much got away with it. People knew what he did, but they didn’t fight him on it. As far as I can tell, no one opposed him with these decisions. No one except Nathan.

Confronting Issues

A prophet by trade, Nathan served as a national and spiritual advisor to King David. I like to think they considered each other friends as well. Nathan didn’t come in playing a blame game with his king. He merely confronted David’s sin. He laid out the truth with a story, which enraged David. How could anyone in his kingdom act so cruelly?

But then Nathan whispered, “It’s you, dude. You’re the bad guy in this tale.”

At that point, David made a wise decision—one that played a part in God calling him a man after His heart in spite of a sinful human nature.

Avoiding the Blame Game

What if King David played the blame game? He could have easily. It was Bathsheba’s fault for being naked on a rooftop. It was Uriah’s fault for not following directions. It was… He could have done what Adam did. God gave me good eyesight and put me in a position to see her. The bottom line, David’s bad choices started when he walked in disobedience and chose to stay at home when his troops and all the other kings were battling.

But David didn’t even argue with Nathan. Caught in his sin, he admitted the errors he committed. You know, he didn’t have to. As king, he could pretty much do what he wanted. Kings had a special status long ago. David worried more about God and His opinion than that of man. He took responsibility, knowing the consequences of his sin were ugly. He stood like a man, and said, “I’m guilty.”

David faced tough circumstances resulting from the bad choices for the remainder of his life. Taking responsibility sometimes means life gets rough. But what if we don’t own up to what we do wrong?

Life doesn’t get easier. And blaming everyone else for our situation only makes matters worse, because then our heart develops a victim mentality. And that leads to parts of a homeless heart. Sometimes things happen that really aren’t our fault. Life simply throws bad stuff at us, and it stinks. That’s when the blame game comes easily. Well Mama did this, and if you knew what Dad did… At some point, even the worst of circumstances cannot be an excuse for the way I behave. No matter what happened, I own responsibility for what I do with my past, my attitude and behavior. See I can’t change what went before, but I do own my response. And in the end, that’s where we have to say, “Maybe my life to this point has been yucky. So how do I change it? And if I really can’t, how do I react that keeps me from sinking further?” I can usually change my life. It isn’t always easy. But it is much better than playing the blame game and sinking into a deep hole in my heart that never heals.

Are you playing the blame game, seeking to avoid responsibility for yourself? If so, choose a different path today and walk toward freedom.

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