Posts Tagged: taking responsibility

“Leaving out a Crucial Detail”

On July 7, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

‘And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”’

(Exodus 32:21–24 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, https://accordance.bible/link/read/ESVS#Ex._32:21)

I love this story.  It is an incredibly human narrative.  Moses “lollygags” around with God on Mount Sinai, while the people below get ants in their spiritual pants.  The people come to Aaron, the priest, and express their impatience with this slow-poke, Moses.  Aaron reacts immediately, instead of responding thoughtfully.  And voila: The golden calf!

This is not a funny story.  It is deadly serious.  And yet, even deadly serious stories can have some humor in them.  This one certainly does.

When Moses confronts his brother Aaron, Aaron explains—or excuses his behavior.

‘And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”’

When Aaron is telling the story to Moses, Aaron leaves out a crucial part of the story that the author of Exodus had already told the reader.

“3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:3-4, English Standard Version, emphasis mine)

When he speaks to Moses, Aaron leaves out the bit about his use of the engraving tool.  He says, “I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

Now, before I, before we, look down our long spiritual noses at Aaron, I/we might want to have a look in the mirror.  When we are explaining why we did what we ought not to have done, or have failed to do what we ought to have done, we all tend to leave out crucial details.  And in those crucial details are the real reasons why we’ve done what we shouldn’t, or not done what we should.

A crucial part of integrity is honesty, and a crucial part of honesty is being completely honest about our own part in what has gone wrong.  It is easy to pretend that something “just happened,” when in fact we happened it.

Healing and transformation can only occur when we acknowledge our own engraving tools.  Details matter—especially the details that relate to our own personal responsibility.

, , , , , , ,

“It’s God’s Fault!”

On October 27, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“The foolishness of a man ruins his life, but it is against God that his heart rages.” (Proverbs 19:3, my translation)

“Blame must be assigned—and it’s not me!”  (A twelve-step friend’s saying)

I once had an interesting encounter with an unbeliever who was in the hospital.  He was dying, and asked a very interesting question: “Why is God doing this to me?”  The question was interesting for three reasons.

First, I’m not sure that the man actually believed that there was a god.  However, if he did believe that there was a god, apparently such a god served only as a blame magnet.

Second, the man had been an alcoholic, drinking heavily for about forty years.  He was dying of cirrhosis of the liver—a common disease brought on by long-term excessive drinking.

But the third reason his question was interesting was that it reflected a very common tendency: When in doubt, blame God!

Did I say that this tendency was common?  Universal would be more accurate.  This tendency is also exceedingly ancient.  It goes back not only to the time of the writing of the Book of Proverbs in the Bible.  It goes back to the Garden of Eden.  Thus, Adam, when confronted with his disobedience, said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she tempted me and I ate it.”

We usually notice that Adam blamed his wife.  (Fortunately, since then, husbands never blame their wives for their own wrong-doing, do they?)  But did you notice the phrase “. . . whom you gave to be with me . . .”?

As Andy Stanley points out, the man is basically saying, “God, you owe me an apology.”  Since the Garden, we have continued to hold God responsible for all kinds of personal and cosmic tragedies.  Why are earthquakes and hurricanes “acts of God,” but the stability of the earth and gentle summer breezes are not?

Of course, God doesn’t have a corner on the blame market.  Blame is a very competitive sport.  The Republicans blame the Democrats, and the Democrats blame the Republicans.  We all blame the media, though we may—and do—choose whether Fox or CNN is to blame.  Social media has given us the chance to blame one another anonymously and feed off the blaming frenzy of other like-minded folks.

If only we could figure out who is really to blame, then we could all rest easy!  Right?

There is, perhaps, another path.  However, be warned: It ain’t easy!

It is called taking responsibility for ourselves, and for how we live out our individual selves in relation to others.  Being responsible in our thoughts, words, and actions is the best way to win the blame game, because, when it gets right down to the heart of the matter, responsibility is the only way to win the blame game.  And here, “winning” the game means playing another game entirely.

What would happen if we all got up tomorrow morning, and said, “Today, I will be a responsible human being!”?  There might be fewer car wrecks, fewer mass shootings, fewer pipe bombs, less bombastic nonsense.

I think I’ll try it!  Any traveling companions?

, , , , , , , , , , ,
Follow on Feedly