That's your responsibility

Twice in Matthew 27 we read these words, "That's your responsibility."
They are both used in situations where people want to 'pass the buck.' Early on in the chapter, after Judas has realised the implications of his actions, he tries to give the 30 coins back to the religious leaders, but they rely:
"What is that to us? That's your responsibility!"(v.4)

Later on, when Pontius Pilot washes his hands of the situation with Jesus, he says,
"I am innocent of this man's blood. It is your responsibility." (v.24)

It seems that we live in times where no one wants to take responsibility for our actions. Perhaps it's time we changed this?

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Tilt

This morning I was driving from Petrol station to Petrol station trying to fill up with petrol. I eventually managed to find one that had unleaded petrol, but I was getting worried for a moment. While I was driving around something made me tilt my head left and look at the petrol gauge from a side view - it definitely looked a lot better. The gauge showed I had a quarter of a tank. However, when I carried on with my experiment and tilted my head 'right' the gauge was in the red. Both were inaccurate - the truth lay somewhere in the middle.

When you are facing a situation, which way are you looking at it? If our perspective is tilted to much to the one side we may panic unnecessarily. However, if our perspective is at the opposite extreme, we may think all is fine, when we need to be preparing for action.

Let's seek the balance.

Living in Grace,
D3LM3

Blame

My youngest son, Josh, is going through an interesting phase. Somewhere along the line he has learnt to 'shift blame' onto other people. Like this morning for example. He woke up at his usual 5:30am and wanted Kim to read him a story (I was grateful that he chose her to read at that time of the morning and not me).

Anyway, as he was turning the pages, he tore one of them and when Kim asked him not to tear the book, he responded, "Daddy did it!" There I was, just innocently trying to decide if I wanted to get up or not and I got blamed for something I knew nothing about. That's bleak!

Poor old Nathan and Declan (and Bella, the Labrador) have been blamed for a lot of stuff lately. As parents our role is to now teach him how to accept responsibility for his actions. Pray for us!

The thing is, Josh is going through a phase that we will 'train' him out of, but many people are still playing the 'blame game' and they are not 2 years old! Sure, it started with Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, but we need to start taking responsibility for the choices we make.

I came across this encounter in the Old Testament:
"When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. She fell at his feet and said: "My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say." - 1 Samuel 25:23-24

Abigail was prepared to 'take the blame' for something. That's brave! Many others wouldn't have.

What things are we facing in our lives, where we are still blaming others. Is there going to be a time when we say 'enough' and start turning things around?

Just thinking!

Living in Grace,
D3LM3