"If you don't see the real me, you won't see what love has won..." Vota

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Lost momentum is to blame-- heehee

So I feel I have lost the momentum in my blog on my Bible study, but I will not abandon it altogether. I will blog about it as I am inspired to do so or at least once a week. I have had a lot of other things on mind that I would rather blog about. I have been listening to the Bible on CD and have made it through disc 13. As I listen, I hear the Bible presented as a play. I have never heard the Bible read like this and there is much I am learning. There have been many things that really struck me about human nature as I listen to the interactions of Biblical characters. One thing is blame. This is one of the first things that Adam did after sinning and getting caught in his nakedness.


I for one am not sure why we are so apt to blame each other. It is like a second nature to us to excuse our misdeeds or even mistakes by blaming someone or something or some incident... I learned a long time ago that just owning up to the mistake is the best way. (Isn't this what our parents told us, "If you just are honest it won't be as bad as it would if you are caught covering it up."?)

I was a waitress (well server if you want to be politically correct) at a little restaurant as a teenager. I learned really fast that if I messed up and someone’s food/drinks or whatever had an issue, they were so much more forgiving if I actually came out and told them the truth. I did my share of, "the kitchen forgot", "the other server stole", and “the pigeon fell off the line"... excuses on why people's food order was not cooked or was miscooked. Now really, in all honesty it was my poor job and lack of attention that any of the mistakes came in to play. I finally figured out people DO NOT want to hear excuses. They don't even want it covered up and made to be a non-issue-- you know when it just takes a REALLY long time to get your food and you have no idea why. They want to know you made a mistake, are sorry and that the problem is being taken care of. They don't want to know what caused you to make the mistake. I got much better tips when I just told the truth. Since then with that immediate reinforcement of a right choice, I have learned to take this into the rest of my daily relationships. If I mess up, I tell you, "I've messed up". I have often beat myself up about the mistake more than any normal person would in repercussion of my mistake, but my Bible study is helping me to quit beating myself up. Here is an example of what I am talking about:

Here is the verse that started all of my thinking about the topic of blame.

Deuteronomy 1:37 Because of you the LORD became angry with me also and said, "You shall not enter it, either

Ok, so for the background: Moses was tired of the Israelites' grumbling against God and he complained to God. So God had mercy on them and told Moses to speak to a rock and tell water to come out. In a fit of rage, Moses yelled at the Israelites (unmercifully even maybe) and struck the rock twice (I don't think he nicely tapped the rock, do you?) then said something to the effect of, must we even make water come out of this rock? So does this give God glory? Or is Moses taking some if not all credit for God's mercy? Welp, God got a little angry at Moses. He still had mercy on the people and allowed water to gush forth from the rock, but Moses was punished and was told he would never enter the Promised Land. So when it came time for the people to cross into the promise land, Moses told this to the people-- it' your fault I cannot go.

Now I could be wrong here, but isn't Moses blaming the people for his punishment. They may have been the ones to insight his wrath, but he is the one who chose to act out of anger. The Bible says a couple of times, "In your anger do not sin". To me Moses sinned and was duly punished for it. I can't see any evidence that he was even sorry for his reaction. But he is feeling sorry for himself about now I would imagine. Here he has led these people all this time toward this ultimate goal and he has to stop and not go any farther. I guess he thinks, "If I feel bad, maybe I should make them feel bad too."

Have you ever done that? Isn't there an old saying, "misery loves company?" I guess even in the Bible this is true. I wonder if Moses had just repented to God and told Him that he was wrong and that in his anger he sinned, beat up the rock, got a little power hungry, claimed the power as in part if not all his and asked for forgiveness what God would have done? He pleaded the case for the "stiff necked" people all the time, but he never owned this sin as his own. I think this is proven when he tells the people it was their fault he was not going into the Promised Land instead of telling them look what I did and I am fairly being punished...

What if Adam had not blamed Eve and Eve not blamed the serpent. I wonder what would have happened if they had gone to God and owned up to their sins and said, "Oh, Lord what I have done is so egregious. How could I ever expect to be in Your Company again? Forgive me. I am to blame." Instead they hid from God.

Think about this as a parent. If you child comes to you in such a broken state of repentance, do you have mercy on them? Or do you unleash the full wrath that would have been unleashed if they were caught hiding, and were only sorry for being caught? Now I understand there would have to be consequences, but wouldn't you as a parent be a little more merciful to the repentant child? Even in their "I'm sorry I got caught, but it was her/its fault" state of mind, God was kind and gentle to them. He clothed them after He cursed them and the ground because of them. Isn't He more merciful than any earthly parent?

So, I will continue to try to teach my girls to just be honest with me and show them mercy when they are, and maybe they will grow up to understand the necessity of brokenness at the feet of Jesus. I will continue to keep this spirit of humility as well and hopefully I can teach by example.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I love to read your comments! I would love to post those with actual thoughts reflecting on my posts. Spam and nastiness will not be posted.