The Blame Game

I hate election years.

Yeah, yeah...I know...I should be all "rah-rah" about the democratic process and exercising my voting right as a citizen. Trust me, I'll vote. It's all the pre-election garbage that just wears me out. Instead of focusing on real specifics about real issues in our society, way too many candidates at all levels find all kinds of ways to blame their opponents for everything from the mortgage crisis to Original Sin.

As a good friend reminded me last Sunday, the blame game is the easy way to deal with troubled times. In fact, it's the coward's way, as this method offers negativity and complaint without the guts to work for a positive solution. With regard to these shaky financial days, there's plenty of blame to go around. Credit companies are to blame and so those of us who built our financial planning on instant gratification and runaway indebtedness. Lenders are as culpable as borrowers. Governments shoulder as much responsibility as private enterprise. Politically, neither side of the aisle has clean hands. Most circumstances are a maze of complexity, and assigning blame to one component makes no more sense than saying an iceberg is only the tip you can see.

The blame game is infectious. It seeps into families, organizations, churches, and all relationships. It is surely one of Satan's joys and an easy button to push. History's heroes have never been the blame-assigners. Such heroes have been the woman and men who push, lead, and sacrifice for light at the end of a dark tunnel.

God, save me from my tendencies to point the finger of blame. Remind me that the finger will always point first to me. By your grace in Jesus, give me the courage to be a solution-finder.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.