Personal Responsibility

Have you noticed lately that nothing is our fault? We, Americans, tend to blame everyone... else for our issues. It was the car, the dog, the rain, the food, the waiter, the store, that lousy road, Monday, too much stress, the school, too much on my plate, Murphy... but it is not my fault. What has happened to personal responsibility? Where is it? Is it gone for good?

If something goes wrong there is a reason outside and away from who we are as a being to blame. It is almost as if we can't take the idea that we are to be responsible; that our actions "could" have negative consequences. That is kind of, stay tune for a technical word here, "nuts," don't you think. But, we are more than happy to take credit where credit is not do to us. We like to be patted on the back and told how great we are, when, we really aren't that great. What?

We tend to take too much credit for the good things and are averse to taking any credit for the negative things... ahhh! What does that say about who we are as people? What does that say about the leaders we elect? What happened to "the buck stops here?" What happened to leaders standing up and taking on the tough issues? What happen to leaders who worry about the greater good and not just their own good?

Back when I was younger (yes, still fighting the aging process), I remember when it was taboo for lawyers to advertise, to default on your loans or to even borrow money. Now, these all appear to be strategies and accepted by most Americans. In 2010, there were 1 million foreclosures. That is a million people who didn't pay back the money loaned to them. How do you do that? In 2011 it is predicted that another 1.2 million will do the same thing. Now, here is the crazy thing; in one article it stated that this is becoming a common strategy, people actually plan strategically to default on their loans when they can easily pay them because they didn't like the house or the terms. I can't even get my mind around that. What do you do with that information? That is 2.2 million loans that will not be paid back. Shake it upside down or right side up... it is not good. I don't care how big your economy is, not getting that kind of money back is going to hurt and hurt for a long time.

This has got to be a condition or something because there must be a correlation between the absence of personal responsibility and believing stuff that... just... does... not... add... up. My feeble attempt at irony here... trying to come up with a condition for the lack of personal responsibility. I know... weak. Anyway, back to my satirical diatribe, nothing is free; there is no such thing as money for nothing. And, our blame tends to have no walls. If we can't find someone to blame today we now have the ability to go back in our past and find people to blame. Where does it all end?

What does an absence of personal responsibility produce? Look around; what do you see? Everyone is now the enemy, and no one trusts anyone. Leadership has all but dried up and our current economic, educational, spiritual and international status is reflective of this. Someone must step up and sacrifice for the greater good in order to right the ship, and the cost will be personal and the responsibility will be even more personal. The job will be thankless, not popular and hard with little reward or fanfare. Who would take such a job? John the Baptist did. Paul the Apostle did. Peter the Apostle did. William Carey, lifelong missionary to China did. Jim Elliot, missionary to Ecuador did.

What about you? When things get hard, will you take the heat? Will you own up to the issue being yours, or will you seize the first opportunity presented and pass it on to someone else? Hard questions demand honest answers. Blessings!