Responsibility

Accidentally chanced upon a sermon on "taking responsibility for your life", I got hooked onto Andy Stanley's delivery. Westerners really tend to speak with much more intonation and emphasis that it's quite nice to listen to how they make words come alive. But that's besides the point. The main point here is this message that he was trying to convey.

One idea that stuck with me... is this.

Anytime an individual acts irresponsibly, somebody has to come along to clean up that mess.

Everytime there's a conflict, be it in a family, a community, a relationship, a company, draw a pie. Then draw a slice of the pie in which you think you are responsible for this conflict. Everytime, that slice, is going to be small. We are always focused on how small our slice really is, but really, how much responsibility are we taking? Really. It's not about how much he and she is doing this or that. It's about yourself. Look at yourself. How much can you do to be responsible for this. Stop the blame game. It only creates conflict. Where there's blame, there's often shame. And there's often guilt.

How many times do you hear someone say "It's my fault, I am responsible for what happens." But a minute somebody begins to use blame, do you ever have more respect for someone who blames someone else? Blame is a way to shift responsibility. How good do you actually feel when you have blamed your way out of something?

Start taking responsibility for your life. We were designed to take on responsibilities. We feel good when we are doing well in our responsibilities. Start taking responsibility for your life. Your irresponsibility eventually becomes someone else's responsibility. And we feel worse off. Why do we want that? We derive happiness from being responsible. We take pride in our responsibilities.