Selfish

I’ve been thinking this week how incredibly selfish the human race is…yes, me included.  Each one of has probably taken at least one “selfie” of ourselves in our lifetime, right?  When something doesn’t go our way, what is the first thing we do?  We blame someone else.  A little three year old boy stomped into the living room with hands on hips and says, “My football’s gone and SHE took it,” as he pointed to his sleeping one week old sister.  We laugh and say it’s funny, but does it really change when we get older?  One year I filled in as a substitute teacher for a fifth grade class.  One girl got so angry at another girl in the class and started screaming at her. “What is that about, “ I said  “My best necklace is gone, and Betty (pseudonym) has it.”  Calmly I said, “How do you know Betty has it?”  Child: “Well, because she’s been admiring it for a week, and she said she would like one, but her family couldn’t afford it.”  Me:  “When did it turn up missing?”  Child, “Recess, and I looked hard, but it is gone.”  Me: “Do you think you could have misplaced it?”  The child shook her head no as she glared at Betty.  I walked over it the blackboard on the eraser tray I picked up a pretty moonstone necklace.  The child’s eyes lit up as she came running to reclaim it.  I had seen her take it off and lay on the tray at lunch time.  I asked if she had something she would like to say to Betty.  Betty got a quick apology, but the Child didn’t want to say too much, because she would have to admit her own guilt.

An upper grade violin student got angry because she couldn’t play her piece right at lesson. She stomped her foot, began to cry and said, “I hate this; I don’t know why I can’t play it.  It’s hard.”  I simply asked if she had practiced her piece.  She started to make her excuses about how she didn’t have time.  It was my fault, because I gave her too much to learn.  We had a long talk about practicing that day, and of taking ownership of her practice time.  I like to think it paid off, because she has gotten better.  No excuses allowed.

In this house we can lose a pen or keys and the first thing that often comes out of our mouths is, “Who took MY pen, or who took MY keys.   Now, these are not daily occurrences, but they happen.  What makes us so self driven?  As a Christian, I would say, it is in our sin nature.   Wasn’t it the second sin in the Garden, after eating of the forbidden fruit, that our first parents to begin the blame game?  Adam didn’t sin, not really, it was all God’s fault.  If He hadn’t made Eve for him, he would never have thought to eat the fruit.  Eve thought it was all God’s fault too when she blamed the snake. If God hadn’t made that thing, she wouldn’t have been beguiled by it.  So nothing has changed, but you would think that after all these years we would have learned to accept some responsibility for ourselves.  We just got better at playing the game.  So what s the remedy? 

I could make a list. It would include not letting our children and ourselves getting away with blaming others for our own mistakes.  I misplaced my pen have you seen it?  I put my keys down, but now I do not know where.   Have you thought that we are no different from our first parents?  I can’t find the keys, so it’s God’s fault for not giving me a good memory.  We chuckle and say that’s silly, but is it? If God had cleared the path for me I wouldn’t be stuck in this boring job.  If God had only given me better skills, I could earn more money. 

The best remedy is going to Jesus, because He provided us with the solution to this blame game.  He took all the blame upon Himself. He lived a perfect sinless life for us, because He knew we could never go even a second without sinning. He took all our nasty sins, all our vileness upon Himself, and was nailed to the cross.  He spent three days in the grave for us.  On the third day He arose for us, and guaranteeing Heaven for us.  How then should we live?