I’ve been to a lot of basketball games; I mean A LOT!! Growing up in Virginia where Friday night high school football games is what everyone does, I do not know a lot about basketball. I have learned one thing though, whether your team is winning or losing, yell at the refs! All the time. Just yell at them. It never fails, elementary, middle, high school game or college games, one side or the other (sometimes both), are yelling at the refs and, for the most part, ignoring the players completely.

Ok, maybe this isn’t a local basketball problem, or even a basketball problem. Should I even mention the Bengals and Steelers game a few weeks ago? Every other comment I heard from both sides were all about how bad and unfair the refs where.

I was out running the other day after a basketball game and it hit me how this is more of a personality trait we all share; part of being human. Think about it for a minute, how often when things happen in our own life does our first thought go to who to blame? We blame the refs, or the coach, the other team, or the squirrel running across the field. In our lives we blame our friends, parents, family, community, teachers, situation, Satan, genetics, or anything outside of me, the individual, what I can control.

But who is actually playing the game? Is it not the individual who is actually playing the game and making the decisions? I know that in the sports world, sometimes a ref will see one thing and not another, I get that. (though it’s most of the time a lot less than we want to admit) And sometimes life is just not fair, that’s life. But for the vast majority it is the one playing the game, the individual who is responsible for the actions in their own personal life. It’s me taking responsibility of me and my actions. It’s you personally taking responsibility for yours. It may sting at times, but what we desperately need are people who take responsibility for their own actions. We need people who can say, “I messed up. It’s my fault. I’m sorry. I’ll try harder next time.” And really actually do try harder.
In the beginning of Genesis we see how innate this is in our human nature when God came to Adam about eating from the tree they were not supposed to; Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent. Ever since then we have been blaming others and trying to make excuses for our actions, our sins, our mistakes rather than learning from them and growing.

I had a student in youth group this last week ask, “But what if Satan makes me do it?’ I explained that Satan can tempt us, and he does a great job at it because he knows us so much better than we even know ourselves, but Satan cannot make us do anything. (I’ll leave the demon possession topic for another lesson and another blog) There are times that bad things happen. Sometimes things are truly outside of our control. But those are the things that happen to us, not that we cause ourselves. We must be diligent in differentiating between the two and taking responsibility for our own actions.

If you’re anything like me you’re first thought is, “Yes!! I know so many people that need to read this and start taking responsibility for their actions!!” Do me a favor, go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. Don’t worry about other people. Take 10 minutes to sit back, be quiet, and simply ask God to point out times you personally have been guilty of this yourself. This isn’t about others; this is about you.