THE BLAME GAME
Proverbs 14:28
When people prosper… they honor the king…But when poverty comes…they remove him!
Leaders obviously do play a very important role in the prosperity, or demise, of any enterprise. The buck always stops with whoever is in charge.
Those who are in a position of leadership, are the ones in a position of responsibility. When things go great with the team, the head football coach gets free steak dinners. However, when they are losing, he can’t get an invite to a hot dog stand. Sometimes the path from the coronation to the crucifixion is a very short one. But, let’s look a little beyond the obvious, and delve into the meat of what I believe to be the deeper meaning beyond this great proverb!
I believe that the main goal here is to show how deceived people can become concerning the real cause of their own failures. In this day and age in which we live, people are always looking for someone to blame for their problems. Maybe you have heard said… “I have no stable financial resources… (not because I did not manage well my time and finances)…but rather because my job just doesn’t pay me enough money for the work that I do.” When things don’t go our way…it is real easy to push the blame over on someone else!
Life very seldom hands out gifts, only opportunities. It is not someone else’s chore to insure our prosperity and success. That responsibility falls squarely on our own shoulders. God’s word is full of incredible promises concerning our ability to succeed. One of my favorites is found in Matthew 25. “Well done, good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things…therefore now…I will make you a ruler over many things!” Notice the contingency in this promise. 1. Be faithful over the little! 2. I will make you ruler over much! I love this second part (I will make you!). God promises to do his part…and he does over and over again in the lives of thousands of faithful folks all over the world!! This reward of “Faithfulness” is not the work of a day or a week…but the work of many years…laboring with little things…and more than likely…not a million different little things…but many years with the same thing, or very similar things!
It is probably also noteworthy to say that sometimes it is not anyone’s fault for the trials that we face in life. Difficulties are just a natural part of life. We would never know how precious victory is unless we had known defeat a time or two. Times of peace are as calm as an ocean breeze…but only when we have made it safely through to the other side of great conflict…by not turning back when the way gets tough…but digging down our heals in the dirt…and move forward to the other side…one step at a time!!