Who's To Blame?

When we slam out fingers in a door, drop a coveted glass, fray our shirt on the corner of a desk, forget something because we were too busy, get frustrated siting in the car in stalled traffic, irritable from simply waking up, what exactly are we upset about? I get that emotions come up and that there are justified emotions, though what I do not get is misplaced emotions that we want to have a destination, don’t. What happens when the aforementioned things slip out of our perceived control and we are stuck with a consequences that just seems unfair? We have the right to get upset, we have been done wrong, but why and at who, and where did this once benefit our species? Was I able to survive on this planet through the same mechanism that cannot stand to sit and wait in traffic? Did humans all feel the need for warmth to where when my sweater gets caught on the corner of my desk pulling that one strand awkwardly out that it threatened my survival? Do I feel “the universe” is out to get me and thus I feel like what happened was intentionally done to me and why me and whoa is me, etc. etc? 

Well, what is it? Are me mad at ourselves, to the point of holding us accountable for the actions that caused consequences? I don’t know about anyone else, but when I make a mistake and I get frustrated admitting fault and getting punished for it as the pain still lingers from consequence does not go over very well. I doubt anyone takes advice after they drop a glass and a friend starts right in about how to hold the glass properly. We misdirect our emotions to some force that wasn’t the cause of the occurrence. Some people blame themselves, but deeper still, some quality of themselves that was given to them by God. 

“Uhh, why do I think this way?” 

“Why do my short and stubby fingers constantly push two keys when I type versus just the one?”

Stock Photo typing, regular fingers pictured. 

Who are we talking to and who do we expect to remedy this? Are we just saying words out of frustration, or do we expect some wrong to be righted? Do we seek validation from someone? 

“Whoa man, you were damned with short and stubby fingers, no wonder you cannot type anything.” 

No, I do not think that would go over very well either. Not for me anyways, despite my long yet wide fingers. 

The blame has to go somewhere, even if that place is within us, yet treated like an external occurrence that was given rather than formed through our own free will. What we choose to do with our bodies, the places, things, and situations we decided to be a part of, aspects of our environment, all choices in how we are developed, a free will given by God and one where I can only see blame directed, well, at him?

Is this true? Are we that audacious to think God is “messing with us?” That we are some anthill project where he watches us and shakes us to remind us who the boss is? 

To feel interned with, makes no sense when you look at what free will is and how it works. This concept taken from C.S. Lewis and is briefly touched on here: The essence of Free Will, means that God does not alter things, though he has set in motion things before things began and they are playing out as he knew they would, based on our choices in life. Free will means we choose him, not him forcing us to do so. Despite the consequences of a fallen world and the constant reminder through both physical and emotional pain, we are beings that chose this path in some way and by choosing to sacrifice for God, then it means consequences for those who do not. No good without a bad, no positive without a negative. Free Will makes all of that possible, otherwise, things would just BE, as they once were, prior to man’s original sin (This is my understanding of free will from those better at it than I). 

So, through the law of Free Will, we are not being directly “messed with” yet, we are rather being affected by OUR choices in life, consequences of occurrences that happened times before and we now are experiencing them first hand. Maybe the sweater I am wearing will someday catch fire and I won’t be wearing it, but took it off because of the fray, thus saving my life. Maybe slamming my hand in the door and now being aware of the doors and little hands I have at home, thus preventing an accident. Maybe I forgot something because I don’t really need it, but rather will need something more important next time, and thus remember all the more.

The consequences I thought the world held against me, or that God was shaking his finger at me, was my response to my own adaptation of an unjust and therefore malicious world. I put myself here. I put my thought process in a competition blender to make a malicious smoothie, this leaving any occurrence with someone to blame. What I thought I always wanted was that one person to take the fall, what I get is nothing but blame for me, that stings too much. I better blame someone else. 

“Stupid lamp.” Well, I guess that is one way to start. Though, I did put the lamp there weeks ago and I did know it had that hard corner to catch a knitted sweater. I knew these and yet here it happened. For some reason, maybe a reason that could save the world someday. After all, nature is on a destructive path, edging closer to the end every second of the day. Maybe this one sweater will have to be placed in a drawer that could be the only surviving artifact after the next cold war and this being a garment for some person wandering the nuclear wasteland. Maybe, or maybe I will just keep wearing this thing and work on my anger in the process. After all, everything does happen for a reason, and it isn’t just to inconvenience my life. 

God Bless

My own story here. If Interested.