Our broken state invites us to feel and grieve, but we cannot stop there. Our ache, the willingness to let the truth of life linger, will always lead us to two questions:
How did we get here? And who can we blame?
We also need to watch over what we do with these questions. In many ways, how our character forms and therefore who we will become derives from our responses.
We must deal with the second question (Who can we blame?) if we are to healthily engage the first question (How did we get here?).
Who can we blame?
Who can we blame for our pain and broken state? The desire to blame comes from the impulsive belief we are blameless. The act of blame presents a way out of our own feelings. If I can find someone to blame, I do not have to look at myself. This is not to say we should not hold criminals responsible for actions taken against humanity. No one escapes accountability, and love holds people responsible with proper consequences when due. Society should lock up or deal appropriately with a man or woman who shows they cannot live without harming or violating the rights of others. At the end of the day, though, blame is different than holding someone accountable. Blame is a shift away from taking responsibility for my own heart and life.
How did we get here?
How did we get here? No one started conversations with words like “terrorism”, “war”, “death”, and “murder” in Eden. They don’t seem to have been words at all. So how did we get here?
The story goes that years ago a newspaper published the question “What’s Wrong with the World?” and invited response from readers. Likely the widespread audience answered with essay upon essay about all that has shipwrecked us as a society. In response to what has gone wrong with the world, the writer, thinker, and theologian G.K. Chesterton wrote:
“Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K. Chesterton”
Yes, Mr. Chesterton, yes. How did the world become shipwrecked? I did it. We did it. If we are ever to tell the truth as shipwrecked hearts, we must start here. What’s wrong with the world? I am. We are.
