Title: Who Can I Blame? / Topic: Wise Living

Posting from our nation's capital, Washington DC, from May 22 through June 3.

Today's Reading: Proverbs 19; Proverbs 20; Proverbs 21; Romans 13

Scripture: Proverbs 19:3 A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD.

Observation: One of my current "funny statements" is: "happiness is having someone else to blame." The above proverb describes exactly that. Here is a person who has lived a life of folly (that is, "Perilously or criminally foolish action"), and yet blames God for the resultant troubles. How comforting it is to not have to accept responsibility for my life -- but how false! And notice the word "rages". This is a word filled with intensity, with pathos. This person is really angry with God. But the person he should be angry with is himself.

Application: Like me, when you read this verse, you probably have some people come to mind that have chosen to live away from God and the obvious fallout of their lives has been significantly ruinous. But, this verse does not apply only to such people. This verse can apply to the God-fearing person as well! We can operate in folly -- damagingly foolish action in one or more areas of our lives -- that is not obvious to others, or that is at least "more acceptable" in our Christian culture.

Let me draw a contrast. On one hand, let's talk about substance abuse. We would all easily identify an alcohol or cocaine addict as a person living a life of folly. A substance-abuse problem is obviously damaging behavior. But contrast that with a financial problem. it's easy to spend too much, save too little, and fail to plan. And we don't readily consider this to be folly. In fact, many Christians, many of us, are living (present tense) like this.

A significant lack of discipline without correction in any of dozens of areas can bring harm to our lives. Money, food, time, fitness, entertainment, speech, gossip, submission, study, work, relationships, sex, thoughts, and many others are all aspects of life that require discipline. And we can easily be tripped up in them. But the problem is not in the initial tripping, it's in continuing in the "folly".

The key to address this issue is accountability. This has been a buzz word for some time and lots of people talk about it. But few people truly have functional accountability. By that I mean you have people in your life who know and share the values you want in your life and who you have asked to pay attention and intentionally intervene when (not if) you fall short or show signs of wavering. This involves a meddling in the life of someone else and someone else meddling in my life. True accountability is inconvenient, intrusive and uncomfortable. But folly is deadly. So pick your poison. I advise you to seek accountability. It does not happen without work and maintenance. But it is worth it to keep folly out of your life.

Prayer: Lord, help us to gain the full benefit of those You have made available to us. Our brothers and sisters can help us to stay on the path of wisdom and health, but only if we allow them to. Give us courage to risk giving others entry into our personal lives. Give us the awareness of our own weakness and tendency toward folly. And bring to us the right kind of partners to mutually seek Your best in all of our lives.
This I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.