iPhone

I went to help my sister out earlier this week and while I was there, my iPhone got wet and long story short, died in a small hot mess! I was at first amazed at how much I depend on that crazy thing and then, wanted to blame someone for my misery and loss! My sister! It was her glass that held the water! Apple! They made the phone! The full moon! You can always blame strange things on the moon! Preacher man! If he had been there it wouldn't have happened. 

All this got me to thinking about how we love to blame everybody else for our problems. Jesus had this issue going on when he asked the sick man that had laid by the pool ill for 38 years (John 5:6). Do you really want to be healed, or do you just want to talk about your problem? Do you want to use your problem to get sympathy from others? Do you just want it for a crutch, so you can walk with a limp?

The lame man said to Jesus, But Lord, nobody puts me into the pool. I try but they all get there ahead of me! He wouldn't look deep within his heart to find out whether he really wanted to be healed.

We live in an age where we want to blame someone else instead of facing our own responsibilities. I was the one that placed the glass too close to my phone! No matter how grouching I got, the phone was not going to heal itself, Preacher man was not going to run to the Apple store and fix it for me, and in all honesty, all anyone else could do for me was say, Put it in a bag of rice! 

Did I want my phone fixed? Was I willing to do what it took? Was I willing to face my responsibility in the matter?

When we don't deal with our problems, we may find ourself, 38 years later, still  blaming others for not fixing things for us! Our anger turns to bitterness, which isolates us and only grows into more bitterness. When we don't talk about the problem, it doesn't go away!

Is there something you need to take responsibility for that's causing you to limp? 

Accept Responsibility!

I've been thinking about some hard stuff lately. I don't know why I do this to myself, but since I do, I'm going to do it to you too!

Do we accept our responsibility in matters? What matters, you maybe asking. Well, the matters that you have a part in. Or do we play the victim? I was sinned against! I AM the victim! You don't know what happened to me! OK, true enough, I agree and have said these things myself. But what about our response? What about the fact that we learned to hate, or resent, that we hold onto that bitterness, or escape into an unreal world?

We may say My folks never told me about sex, and I grew up and went out into this evil world, innocent and ignorant, and got into trouble. That 's the way it happened the first time, but what about the second time or the third time, whose fault is it then?

Loom and Shuttle

Wise Dr Seamands from Asbury says Life is like a complicated tapestry, woven with a loom and shuttle. Heredity, environment, all the things experienced in childhood, from parents, teachers, playmates, all of life's handicaps - all of these things are one side of the loom, and they pass the shuttle to you. But remember, you pass the shuttle back through the loom. This action, together with our responses, weaves the design in the tapestry of our life. 

We are responsible for our actions! We will never receive healing until we stop blaming everyone else and accept our responsibility.