November 10. But He Tempted Me!

As a leader, how many people receive the blame when there are errors? It is interesting how large the number can be. We can think about sports for a great analogy. Imagine it is the final game of the World Series and it is in the bottom of the 9th inning. There are two outs, bases loaded, and a full count on the batter.

If the next pitch is a ball, the home team wins. Here comes the throw and the batter walks, the home team wins. Do you blame the pitcher? As leaders, our accumulative efforts are what delivers results. We all contribute to the successes and failures of our teams.

When it comes to responsibility for results, we all are accountable. Where is your team lacking accountability? Do you have a formal and measurable form of accountability, or will we just settle and blame the pitcher? Why did the home team not have five or ten extra runs so that the loss did not occur?

How did the bases get loaded? Why is that pitcher still pitching and what made the batter refuse to swing at the four balls?

As a follower of Christ, do we claim our faults, our problems, and shortcomings? Or do we too easily look for someone or something to blame? We read, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;” James 1:13 NIV.

Have you ever heard someone blame God, or even question God? It is so much easier to cast questions or blame somewhere other than ourselves. I have come to ask myself the phrase, "Without judgment, what do you think?" That phrase helps me to change my perspective.

 Often that perspective change finds my lack of action or error. But before that question was asked, I was ready to cast blame or question others. Are we questioning God with that question or ourselves with, "What would Jesus do?" Can the question challenge ourselves and those that we are in relationship with?

Where are you being accountable to others? How might you be able to be accountable to

 yourself? Having an accountability system is one of the steps of being accountable at a higher level. We can identify days or time periods to address the priorities, figure out our role and responsibility to it, and then commit to make it happen.

We can even add a promise or consequence for failure. When was the last time you made a promise and kept it? Consider that you might be more accountable if you did it weekly, or even daily. What is the first thing that you can do about it in the next seven days?

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love that has said we need Christ, not judgment from others. Help us to see our shortcomings, sins, and blame. We ask you to help us to remove the log from our own eyes.

We are on a journey in our faith. Open our eyes so that we might see how we can show your love by being accountable at a higher level. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,