Deflection
Good Morning,
Deflection may not be the term some use; it may be referred to as “passing the buck,“ or “the blame game.” The reality is, since the Garden of Eden, people have been trying to blame others for their wrongdoing. God asked Adam about eating the forbidden fruit, and the first thing Adam did was blame the woman that God had given him. He blamed the woman and God. Notice that God did not try to defend Himself in the least. Everyone knew the truth, and God was not going to allow Himself to be on trial or examined by this pitiful man. Then God asked the woman about Adam’s blaming her, and she deflected blame to the serpent.
David was the king and the most powerful man in the country, a man who could pronounce the death sentence on anyone he chose. One of David’s most amazing attributes surfaced when Nathan, the prophet, pointed his finger at David and said, “Thou art the man.” David humbled himself and admitted his guilt. He was a man after God’s own heart!
Rare are people who simply accept guilt when they are confronted with their own wrongdoing. Most often, they try to blame a co-worker or another student in the school. The husband blames his wife for his bitterness, while the wife blames her husband for her coldness. We are constantly trying to deflect the blame when we should be willing to accept it.
There is something powerful about admitting to your friends that you are weak and need their prayer that brings you into the presence and powerful aid from Heaven.
James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Lest we become arrogant and act as if this is always the other person, we ought to admit that our first response is usually to “pass the buck.” Decades ago, a new nursery superintendent took her position to organize our church nurseries. (A difficult job to say the least.) Another lady, somewhat older, approached the superintendent, and corrected her about how she was doing something. Because of age and years in our church, the older lady felt she had that right. She was not correcting a dangerous or morally wrong decision, it was simply procedural. I approached the older lady to assure her that she was not the nursery superintendent and that the superintendent job belonged to someone else. I also reminded her that she needed to stay out of the situation or pass any information to me to decide if the matter needed to be corrected. To my shock, that lady never returned to church; I am still shocked. She simply could not acknowledge that she was out of line; perhaps she could not accept that she had been corrected. We were dear friends, and our families had even vacationed together; yet, she did not speak to me for many years. Eventually, our paths crossed at a few social events and she was very kind. I regret losing her as a friend and as a valued church member, but it appears that it was all rooted in accepting the blame.
Even salvation requires a confession – an admission that we are unworthy and that Christ is the only Saviour.
Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
After salvation, believers need daily cleansing in order to stay right with God; that cleansing requires a confession and an admission of guilt with no blame.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Parents may be prone to defending their children. When a teacher notes some wrongdoing in a student’s life, and the parent immediately defends the child by making statements similar to “all the kids act that way,” or “other kids have done worse and gotten away with it.”
I am not saying this is always the correct way to deal with trouble at school, but anyone over fifty years of age knows the old saying, “Get a spanking at school and…”
Most of us have read a book or seen a movie in which the spoiled brat of a rich or powerful person faced no repercussions for corrupt behavior. That child will always be faced with disdain, whether as a child or an adult. Typically, those children turns into tyrants when they gain wealth or power from their parents.
To take personal responsibility for one’s behavior is a godly character trait. To train your children to do the same will make their future much more useful, not to mention much happier.
Pastor