A
city employee in Lodi, California, is suing the city for damages after
he backed a dump truck into his own parked car. The 51-year-old man
argues that because the "city’s vehicle damaged my private vehicle,"
the city owes him $3,600. As ridiculous as this sounds, blaming others
has been a basic human trait since the beginning.
When Adam and
Eve ate from the forbidden tree, their eyes were opened and they lost
their innocence. God asked the man a simple, yet penetrating question:
"Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). In the past, Adam had intimate fellowship
with God, but now he responded in fear and hid himself.
God’s
follow-up question was more convicting than the first: "Have you eaten
from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"
(v.11). Then the blame game started: "The woman whom You gave to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (v.12). The man blamed God
and the woman for his sin. The woman blamed the serpent rather than
herself. Ever since that day in the Garden of Eden, we tend to blame
others rather than ourselves for our sinful choices.
When we sin,
we should take responsibility. Let’s pray like David: "I acknowledged
my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden" (Ps. 32:5). —Marvin Williams
