| Accountability by Pat Nordman
| "Your
own ways have brought this down upon you; it is a bitter dose of your own medicine,
striking deep within your hearts." (IJeremiah 4:18 TLB) |
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We seem to have
abdicated accountability. What an onerous word, accountability, in today's free-wheeling
lexicon of rights and nuances ....
And yet our righteous God demands an accounting of our thoughts and actions. We might do
well to remember that the one does follow the other, too. Otherwise, advertising would be
for nought. It is silly to say that what we see and hear day in and day out has no effect
on us.
Chuck Swindoll gives us four qualities of
accountability in his book, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity:
Vulnerability – capable of being wounded, shown to
be wrong, even admitting it before being confronted.
Teachability – a willingness to learn, being quick to hear and
respond to reproof, being open to counsel.
Availability – accessible, touchable, able to be interrupted.
Honesty – committed to the truth regardless of how much it hurts, a
willingness to admit the truth no matter how difficult or humiliating the admission may
be. Hating all that is phony or false.
We had five sons and I recall buying a shirt for one of
the younger boys that said, "The devil made me do it." He was a mischievous
little guy and I thought the shirt was hilarious. Of course I never took it seriously and
I'm sure he didn't when he was punished for some of his shenanigans. But as the decades
have gone by and I've witnessed all the lawsuits flooding the land and everyone blaming
everyone else, I wonder if the devil is laughing at us all.
The first it's-your-faulters were Adam and Eve, and we've been playing the blame game ever
since. Amazing! But somewhere along the continuum of growth we learn to say, "OK, I
did it, I take full responsibility, and I'm sorry for whatever grief and inconvenience
I've caused."
Who wants to go first?
Pat Nordman
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