Elul :: Tiptoe through the Tulips

Day 5:     The Blame Game 

Well, that's not exactly the title of today's Elul devotion, but it might as well be. I once worked for a man who had a very wise motto: Don't fix the blame, fix the problem. It nipped excuses in the bud around the office. Just take care of the mess you find yourself in. I later worked in another office where the motto was "Rule #1: Don't Make Mistakes. Rule #2: Admit it when you do." Let's face it, everyone makes mistakes... It only makes matters worse when you try to cover them up.

Covering up mistakes and blaming others for our mistakes are not quite the same thing, but the results can be similar: Both end up making a mess.  I admit, I struggled walking through my feelings with today's devotional. It ripped off a few band-aids. And as much as I value honestly, I value privacy just as much, so I will bypass any personal details - because everyone has their own wounds, and no one's gore compares to the pain of our own wounds. So, when I say that considering today's admonition...

"instead of facing a difficult or unpleasant situation or circumstance head-on, and asking [YHVH] for wisdom, comfort, forgiveness, and any necessary assistance,

[I elect] to assess blame and levy accusation against a fellow human being... [I], in effect, drive a dagger into the heart of God"

...it puts my refusal to accept responsibility for the part I played in any mistakes or cover-ups in a "whole 'nuther light." 

Instead of asking the question, "Who's to blame?", we should be asking the questions, "How will each person involved respond, and How can we make sure that good comes out of this?" Fair assessment. How does that look, you ask? Ahh. Here is the part I don't like walking out. There are too many ugly things in this world that make us default to crying out, "God! Where are You in this? How can You possibly work out this for my good?"

And the thing is, I know better. Yes, my junk is ugly and my band-aids are covering up some nasty welts. But in comparison, I have so little to complain about in the scope of eternity. (Heck, in the scope of now.) I honestly cannot recall any person in my family who has been beheaded or even belittled for their faith. No one has been kidnapped or trafficked. My home has not been bombed or burned out. When you stop and consider many of the world's hurts, mine pale in comparison. But they still hurt me. So, the challenge in today's reading: 

Accurately assess Who – Or What Event or Circumstance – we are Blaming For Us Getting Off-track and Preventing Us From Being All We Were Created to Be

brings up an interesting question: WHO are we created to be? And how is it that we stumble over the problems and the wounds and the darts that are fired in our direction and we allow them to keep us from realizing who we are created to be? 

It should really come as no surprise when we look at our circumstances from that point of view that we discover the culprit and the reason is the same as it has ever been. It is the reason our adversary tempted the first woman in the very beginning. We've lost our focus, we've lost our center, we've lost our understanding of WHO we are created to be... and that same old adversary is still up to his same old tricks, getting us off track by getting us to doubt YHVH and His plan for us. 

Is it any wonder that the writer of Hebrews wrote 2,000 years ago, "let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us..." The apostle Sha'ul in 1 Corinthians uses the same analogy of running a race when he says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race indeed all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to obtain it. And everyone who competes controls himself in every way. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we for an incorruptible crown. Therefore I run accordingly, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air."

As difficult and painful as it is to walk through an exercise of determining what people or events or circumstances we blame for the way our lives have turned out, the reality is that everything has happened or is happening is just a shadow. Sometimes a bitter shadow, I grant you that. But by putting my focus back where it belongs, I can get past that and move to a place of healing and comfort because I do know the end of the story, and I do know Who I am. 

D.J. Butler set it nicely to music:

I will change your name
You shall no longer be called
Wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid
I will change your name
Your new name shall be
Confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one
Faithfulness, friend of God
One who seeks My face.