Articles
Whose Job Is It Anyway?
I read today that the number one cause of shark attacks is,,,,,wait for it,,,, sharks!
That’s right, and I really did read it, but in a very similar use to the way I’m using it here. It’s obvious to us, isn’t it? It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.
Why then is it sometimes so hard for us to apply the same logic to other things? For instance, if we make a mess out of our lives with sinful choices and actions, why do we blame everybody and everything else including God sometimes? When Saul sinned by not killing all of the Amalekites, Saul tried to blame the soldiers. When God approached Adam for eating of the forbidden tree, Adam said: “The woman you gave me...”. Both knew they were wrong, but how often are we just like these guys?
There is a trend in our world that If we don’t blame somebody else, we often blame circumstances? Because our society has adopted this line of reasoning, I for one believe some people can get into this habit of lying to themselves about themselves to the point they start to believe it and maybe even surpass the point of recognizing that we alone are responsible for our actions and no one else.
If we sow our oats in a wild and reckless fashion and then have a crop failure, whose fault is that? We can’t win against sin if we choose it over and over again. If we embrace sin, align ourselves with it, choose it when we have the opportunity to choose otherwise, why are we so desperate to find blame for our actions afterward, when it catches up with us? God made us free moral agents, but not without consequences, as the story of Adam and Eve clearly proves.
If we live in misery, even in the midst of a good family, a job, a big house, a bulging bank account and every other blessing we could ask for, where does that blame fall? What place have we given God? What credit have we given to Him? What sacrifices have we made for Him? Have our choices chosen Him or rejected Him?
Maybe it’s hard for us because we have grocery stores, and by that I mean we seem to have lost the realization that WE reap what WE sow, maybe because we don’t understand the correlation between the two anymore. We think sowing to produce a good crop is somebody else’s job, maybe our mate’s, our parent’s, our kid’s or even the preacher’s?? Maybe some feel they can reap the benefits without doing any of the work. Some want what they want now, and the end product is currently not their main concern.
It’s unfortunate that many seem to want to be “the rich man” in this life, yet get to be “Lazarus” in eternity! The thing that separates the two is that “a great chasm has been set in place so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us”. Our job in this life is to determine which side of that uncrossable divide we want to be on for eternity. We are not really ignorant as to which side a life of unrepentant sin will land us on, are we?
Luke 16:19-31 NIV
