Passing the Buck

 David Alan Black

We’ve all done it. I know I have. It’s endemic to our sinful nature. It started in the Garden and we’ve been passing the buck ever since.

Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. Aaron blamed the people for the golden calf. The unprofitable servant blamed his master. 

We seem to be experts at alibis. In the end, though, have you noticed that it’s easier to accept the buck than to pass it? The unprofitable servant used many times more words explaining his failure than did the faithful servant explaining his success. The prodigal son could have thought up a list of excuses a mile long in that pigsty, but his salvation began when he resolved to say, “I have sinned.”

Today we blame our sins on everybody and everything but ourselves—heredity, environment, complexes, too much of this, too little of that. The principle is the same on the national level. Except the Lord build the (national) house we labor in vain who build it. These are dreary days when the temptation is strong to get by with shoddy building materials and build a cheaper structure. It takes rugged tenacity to say “No” to cheap substitutes. It is often at the peak of success that we find ourselves likely to dream up alibis rather than turning to God and humbling ourselves under His mighty hand. There is no greater peril, whether with the individual, the nation, or the church, than the menace of thinking we are strong when we are weak.

How the old nature wants to make alibis when we should be making amends! Would that Christians knew the simplicity of confession exhibited by the prodigal when he said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against thee.” Today, perhaps more than ever, we need a spiritual miracle to help us see ourselves as we really are.

July 25, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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