Taking responsibility

I remember when I was a little boy my mom and dad had went somewhere and left me home by myself. (No my parents were not bad parents, but I was a very responsible child. I was old enough to take care of myself. Ha Ha) Anyway while they were gone I thought I would practice my drumming skills, even though I had none. We had these vinyl chairs that made a great sound when you beat on them. I was beating on the chair and cutting loose on my talent, when for no apparent reason, the vinyl ripped. Of course I was innocent. If the vinyl had been made right or if the material would not have been so old then it never would have happened. When my parents discovered the faulty material and I finally confessed that the material was at fault, they asked me what happened and I told them 'The devil made me do it." I thought it was a pretty good response, but my parents did not seem to accept my reasoning. They wanted to know who was responsible. Well if the truth be made known, Mom, Dad I was the responsible party. Well the chair is long gone and the incident is past history but the truth of the story remains vivid. Most of us do not want to take responsibility for our actions. We will probably take responsibility for the good things, but if something bad goes wrong, we normally like to pass the buck. We have seen this acted out in society as a whole most of our lives. I was reading about this very thing in Matthew 27:1-26. For all the negative publicity that Judas, the betrayer of Jesus gets, he made one interesting observation in his final days of life. Judas after he was seized with remorse, returned the 30 pieces of silver and stated "I have sinned for I have betrayed innocent blood." It is interesting that he would admit this fact and the religious leaders who did not get anything right on this day stated the truth "What is that to us? That's your responsibility." In other words Judas you are responsible for your actions. Later in the same story Pilate recognized that the religious leaders were wanting to kill Jesus because of envy. He wanted to let him go, but he gave in to pressure and made the statement "I am innocent of this man's blood, it is your responsibility." The only person in the story who seems to be taking responsibility for his actions was Barabbas who was condemned to die. (However, I bet he wanted to blame someone else as well.) Yet the story tells us that Jesus took his place. Instead of Barabbas dieing for his sins, Jesus took his place. Sounds kind of familiar to me. The truth of the matter is that all of us are responsible for our actions. We try to pass the buck and blame someone or something else. We will blame our parents, our upbringing, our boss, our environment, or our circumstances. We always look for an excuse to not take responsibility for our actions. However, the Bible is pretty clear that there is no one perfect and no one who is without sin (Romans 3:23). But there is one without sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 states "God made him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us." As a result Jesus "is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). Just as Jesus took the place of Barabbas, he took the place that we deserve as well. He took responsibility for our actions so that we could be made right with God. If we "confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). It is a hard truth for us to accept, because we just do not believe we are responsible for bad behavior or for sin. Because we will not accept responsibility we miss out on what God has planned for our lives. The first step to accepting what God has to offer is to take responsibility for our actions. You cannot be forgiven if you do not think you need forgiveness. Sorry if I sound too churchy or too theological in my post, but I just want to take responsibility for my actions. I have a responsibility to share what God has done for me and what He has taught me. After all if I don't take responsibility for my actions, who will? How about you? Will you take responsibility?