Ever since Adam invented it, humanity has gravitated to it like a sinking man to a lifeboat. It is called, ‘find someone to blame,’ the promise being that once blame-shifting is accomplished, rescue is certain. So, Adam blamed Eve for the consumed fruit and we’ve been at it to this day. If you were fortunate enough to grow up in a household with siblings, you always had, in a tight spot, an alternative victim: ‘notme.’ You remember the dreaded questions, ‘Who took . . .?’ ‘Who ate . . .?’ ‘Who broke . . .?’ The critical thing to keep in mind for ‘winning’ is deftly serving the blame elsewhere (my sister and I pingponged blame for years).
Even Jesus’ disciples were steeped in it. In John 9 they ask: “ . . . why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” Fortunately, they ask the One who can answer correctly, if mysteriously. Jesus tells them the blindness was so that God’s power could be revealed in him. The guys didn’t see that coming! Were they to understand that suffering served a divine purpose? That it was an integral part of the big Plan ‘A’? That their questioning revealed wrong thinking? And just as they were forming the highly improbable idea, Jesus went ahead and did it, he showed his love for this man by healing him!
So, for us, what do we do with our blaming? The use of a scapegoat always seems so efficacious, so freeing -for us! Especially in the case of suffering. It feels way less uncomfortable, way less unfinished, to fix blame elsewhere and be done with it. Except, of course, when we’re the ones suffering! Job’s response to much suffering is so encouraging! The Apostle Paul, too, discovered the ‘glory’ in being weak along with the assurance of the sufficiency of God’s grace.
The bottom line, for me, is that all of life, first breath to last, is completely covered, fully within the limitless and loving scope of God’s Plan ‘A.’ He is our All-Sufficient One. He sees. He knows. He listens (even to our rantings!) We are his Beloved (in sickness and health, for better, for worse). That works for me. PD
