Why Do I Have To Explain Myself to You?

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. - James 1:22-25

I was reading an old devotional that was making the point that once upon a time life was simple and uncomplicated. Oh sure, there were struggles and problems, but they weren't all that complex. Good and evil did battle with each other and, for most of us, these battles were in the sunshine of "the obvious". Our own willpower and our lack of focus were right in there; they stood in stark opposition to one another. In the rugged west we were comfortable with the notion that right fought against wrong in life's main event and not too many folks remained neutral; you were a good guy or a bad guy! There was a clear, unmistakable line between winning and losing . . . victory and defeat . . . accomplishment and failure ... actual war between opposing forces and peace, real peace - not smoldering, game-playing peace which seems in our world to be the norm.

Sometimes we loathed self. When we did and we admitted our guilt and genuinely were ashamed for our words and actions. Thinking of it another way, there would also be times when, regardless of whether it was easy or suited our purposes we sucked it up and moved forward, did the right thing. In America, pride was a function of our focus on doing right and this was something we desired to pass on to our children. And children? Well, they looked up to dad and mom. I recall my uncles telling me grandpa was their hero.

What else was in this mold? How about this, a marriage was fa once in a lifetime deal. A job was for work. A crime was for punishment. Irresponsibility was met with a visual lack of trust, a broken promise put you on the outside with a man and his whole clan, adultery was an unspeakable, hardship was expected and thought to build character, extra effort was admired, applauded and maybe, just maybe the only reason for special reward.

Then, ever so slowly, the fog rolled in.

All the evils of the world, once black as tar, turned strange shades of gray. Instead of our seeing them clearly as wrong or someone's responsibility, they became part of a new social fuzzy logic ... and ultimately "explainable"; rationalized by social and psychological inference, implication, that had much more "significant" and far reaching implications. At the end of the day, society searched for and discovered justification for anything. And the outworking of all this is a remarkable twist, a subtle switching of expectations and definitions.

Our society now protects the guilty (you'll excuse the expression) and it almost always appears, at some level the victim is put on trial. We have seen a turn about in reason years with the advent of the most caustic of all atrocities in the actions of terrorists. Still the guy who uses words like discipline and diligence and integrity and blame and shame who is the weirdo, freaky oddball.

I knew a man who shared his story of walking away from the Body of Christ (His local church) and God when he was confronted by leadership because he did not immediately embrace the drunk who killed his wife. "If a drunk driver kills my wife or cripples my kids, how dare I hate him? We all know alcoholism is a disease and nobody gets a disease on purpose. But if I do hate him and if I'm caught up with such rage that I kill the driver, you can't be angry with me. After all, wasn't I suffering from temporary insanity? (That's a brief disease ... like the flu.)" - and all of that would make sense.

Explanations abound, everything from poor toilet training, battered families and unfair parents to oppressive work conditions and governmental rip-offs. Sometimes in my more maddening moments I entertain crazy "what if" ideas. What if we were suddenly stripped of our twenty-first century maladies and "scientific" explanations? What if there was a resurgence of such dated phrases as:

"I have decided to . . ."
"I will . . ."
"I will no longer . . ."
"I am wrong . . ."
"Starting today, I won't . . ."
That would mean saying farewell to foggy terms like:
"I am thinking about it . . ."
"I'm working on it . . ." and,
"Someday I plan to . . ."

which psychologists, pastors, and counselors worth their salt realize mean little more than, "I'm working out some great excuse for not doing it."
How do I know? I've learned those phrases, too! And occasionally, when I get cornered by a hard set of facts, I dip into my bag just like you do---especially if I'm not ready to come to terms with my own responsibility. Out come those handy little guilt-relieving "explanations."
Little by little I'm learning just how enamored I was of all those catch phrases that made me forget I was on a sinking ship.

Let me level with you. And I say this for one reason only - to encourage you to replace explanations with decisions and actions. If I had continued giving in to those lame excuses, my marriage would not have held together, any ministry I have would have become mediocre or more likely non-existent, I would never have finished even this paragraph, I would not have a close friend, I would have jumped from job to job because of the pressure, and who knows what else!

Jesus was right. After telling His disciples how to live fulfilled lives, He put the clincher on it by adding, If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them - John 13:17, emphasis added.

So, today, you and me, let's get the right combination of learning, embracing mentally/spiritually and doing. Let's allows the cleansing power of Jesus Christ to wash over us. It's part of the redemption package. Don't dive under a pile of guilt! Bask in the warmth of a God who is loving and changing you and I.

I remain...

InHISgrip,

~J~