Several years ago, a young man sat for UMTE examination. Just about a week after, the results were released and he was unsuccessful. He took to the social media where he declared that he was becoming an atheist. His reason? He was one of the candidates among 1.7 million aspiring students who sat for the exam and had a score of 156. He was devastated by the results, and understandably so; that was his third attempt at the same exam. But the problem was that he attributed the poor result to God. In his own words, he claimed that the God he had served dedicatedly gave him a score of 156; and on the basis of that he was parting ways with Him. Well, the last time I checked God hadn’t become an employee of JAMB; so there was no way He could have awarded scores to the young man the way he claimed. In simple words the young man was apportioning blame to God; he saw Him as the reason for his failings in life.
“It is a human tendency to parry blames, and that is unhelpful. The way to make progress in life is to accept mistakes and fix them.”
The blame game is as old as the Garden of Eden. When God inquired from Adam if he had eaten out of the forbidden fruit, he did not provide a straightforward answer. As can be seen from our text, he explained that it was the woman who God brought that gave him the fruit. As far as Adam was concerned, God and the woman were to be held responsible. Of course, that excuse was lame; it did not suffice to free him from the consequences of his action. It is a human tendency to parry blames, and that is unhelpful. The way to make progress in life is to accept mistakes and fix them.
