I Blame the Snake

A little story for today:

I was watching the kids' group once at church. As we were walking back from the playground the kids went past the restrooms, and most of them went inside. I proceeded to the classroom to wait for them. 

From the hall I heard a collective scream as a boy named Dominic came into the room with me, grinning a little.

"Quentin just went in the girls' bathroom," he informed me.

A moment later, Quentin came in, looking harassed. "Dominic pushed me into the girls' bathroom!" he complained.

I'm sharing this story because it was funny. Also because it's slightly relevant to the topic I wanted to write about:

In the beginning there was blame.

As soon as sin entered the world, invited and aided by Eve and Adam, so did blaming others.

Adam: Uh.. It's Eve's fault!
Eve: Uh... It's the snake's fault!
Snake: Who, me?!

We as humans love to shift the blame for any and everything onto someone else.

And truthfully, you CAN often find someone at the bottom of it all who was To Blame. (Snake, this means YOU!) But is it productive to blame others all the time instead of taking responsibility for our own actions?

Whenever Jesus was approached by someone trying to push blame on another person, (Matthew 15:1-6, Luke 12:13-15, etc.) He always shifted the person's focus back to themselves. "What does the law say?" He would ask. "What does the Lord tell YOU to do?"

Matthew 7: 3-5
3 “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."

Lord, help me to remember not to blame others for what happens, but to look to my own responsibilities. After all, I am the only person whose actions I can control.

But I JUST washed up!

Have you ever just finished washing up after dinner, finally jamming every single dish that you can into the dishwasher and switching it on? And then, before you can even enjoy looking at the clean and empty sink, one of the kids brings up more dirty dishes?

Maybe it's just me, but I find that extremely frustrating.

Even worse is the kid who complains of being hungry right after you've finished putting everything away and wants to open up some more food and dirty up some more plates.

I tend to start yelling. ACK! STOP! I just washed that!

I mean, the LAST thing I want to see at the end of a long day is more stuff to wash!

Did you realize this actually happened to the disciples?

Luke 5:1-11:

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,

the people were crowding around him and 

listening to the word of God. 

2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, 

left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 

3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, 

and asked him to put out a little from shore. 

Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 

“Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night 

and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, 

I will let down the nets.”

6 When they had done so,they caught such a large number 

of fish that their nets began to break. 

7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat 

to come and help them, and they came 

and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees 

and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 

9 For he and all his companions were astonished 

at the catch of fish they had taken, 

10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, 

Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, 

“Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 

11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

I never noticed this before, but Peter and his partners were done fishing for the day. They had already washed up their nets and were ready to head inside for the day.

But here was Jesus, asking them to get the nets all dirty again!

I can understand why Peter said, "But we've fished all night! And we haven't caught ANYTHING!" They were tired, and the LAST thing they wanted to do was more work.

Amazingly, though, Peter had the faith to say, "But because You say so, Lord, I will let down the nets." And look how he was rewarded!

Lord help me to have the faith to see Your rewards in the midst of my weariness.