It's really not about blame, about who's right and who's wrong.

It's really not about blame, about who's right and who's wrong....

I heard that line in the Christmas movie, "An Accidental Christmas", last night while trying to think of what I was going to write.  The movie isn't anything special, but that line jumped out at me.  In this day and age we are always so quick to find blame, rather than take responsibility.  We are quick to point a finger, quick to tell someone they are wrong or it's all their fault.  But do we ever stop and think about what our part was?  It's so much easier to cast the blame on someone or something else than to take any responsibility upon ourselves.  Because lets face it, if we admit any responsibility then that means we would have to do something about it and it's so much easier to let someone else fix it and then complain when they don't.

After the devastating tragedy of Sandy Hook Elementary the immediate reaction was to find a cause, a reason, someone, something....anything to blame so we could fix it and keep it from happening again.  We are saddened and outraged that it happened and demanding change.  It doesn't matter if the change will really help, we just know we need to change something, anything so that we can feel like our outrage has accomplished something, so we can feel better.

When we can blame someone or something else we don't have to personally do anything about fixing it.  It no longer becomes our problem, our responsibility.  It sure makes things easier doesn't it....or does it?  The problem is that when you think you aren't responsible then you don't think you need to do anything, change anything.  It becomes someone else's job to do that.

We've become a society that no longer takes responsibility for anything: "It's not in my job description".  A society that doesn't care about the unborn: "It's a fetus not a human being".  A society concerned about "what's in it for me" or "what do I get in return".  We've become a society that calls evil good and good evil. A society that idolizes people that have done nothing (Kardashian, Hilton, etc). A society that pays more attention to the bad things/people than to the good things/people.   A society that talks about tolerance, but that is it, just talks.  We no longer have discussions, we have arguments.  We no longer have love, we have hate.  We no longer have differences of opinion, we have name calling.  We no longer have "turn the other cheek", we have "how much can I win in a lawsuit?".  Gone are the days of helping your fellow man, because now if you do you might get sued.

So what am I trying to say in all this rambling?  Simply this: What if what needs to be changed is ourselves?  It's not about assigning blame, about who's right or who's wrong.  It's about taking responsibility, ownership, of ourselves, our lives and our decisions.  Remember when you are pointing that finger at someone else, there are 3 more that at pointing at yourself.  Rather than looking for someone else to blame, let's start looking at ourselves and how we can change.  It won't be easy, but then things worth having never are.

Matthew 7:3-5  
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect