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Monday, November 17, 2008

The Buck Starts Here

And the man said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12 (New American Standard Version)




The term ‘passing the buck’ means to pass on one’s responsibility to someone else. Most of us are aware of the plaque Harry Truman owned that said, “The Buck Stops Here’ meaning that passing on one’s responsibility and accountability for someone else to do would not be tolerated if he were involved. As a human I am gifted at a few things. Unfortunately being accountable for my choices isn’t one of them. That I am at times responsible for my own failure is a particularly uncomfortable realization. When Adam failed in the Garden he passed the responsibility buck to Eve who immediately made change for the serpent. The devastation to both physical and spirutal relationships that rolled out of the mint of the human heart that day became the most inflated currency in history; lots of it and very worthless.

There’s nothing wrong in owning my own shortcomings and failures. Am I really fooled into thinking God doesn’t know about them? When He asked in the Garden where Adam and Eve were was He really lost? I believe He was giving Adam the choice to come lay the buck at His feet, ‘fess up’ and ask for forgiveness. Stopping the buck, as Harry used to say, is my choice. Laying the buck at the feet of Christ for my own choices puts me into the proper frame to seek forgiveness and initiate restoration both with brothers and sisters and with God.

God knows what my weaknesses and shortcomings are. He’s always known. So what’s new? In all the billions of years He’s known the poor choices I would make He has remained the same loving and compassionate Heavenly Father He was before I took my first breath and started crying. He is pleased when I confess all my faults and shortcomings to Him and take on the power of His Spirit for living. With a tenderness that only a loving Father could express He asks me to put the responsibility buck back in my pocket and deal in the currency of honesty and conscious accountability. The change I have returned to me is always in peace of mind and restored intimacy with Christ.

Ken

www.devotionstoday.blogspot.com