Excuses!

If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business”, will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know, someone who is not impressed with weak excuses. Proverbs 24:12 The Message

We are not quite a week into the season of Lent, and most of us are in the process of either fasting, praying, or “giving up” something in observance of the season. Unfortunately, many of us are probably already offering excuses about why the process isn’t working for us. We have tried it for a few days, and it’s just not working!

As a kindergarten teacher, my colleagues and I have heard probably every excuse imaginable offered by students as well as their parents to explain the inability to complete and turn in lessons on time. The most popular excuses were: I left it at home, I had a game last night, I forgot, and the ever popular, the dog ate it!

An excuse is defined as an attempt to lesssen the blame attached to an offense or to defend or justfiy an action. Many times we find it convenient to blame others when we lack the courage to accept the responsibility for our own behavior or mistakes.

The art of making excuses is not a new phenomenon. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus shares the story of a man who was preparing a great banquet, and he had invited many guests. It was the custom then, as it is now, to send formal invitations to such a special event quite a long time in advance. Then, as the actual date approached, a more personal invitation was extended.

According to scripture, instead of receiving the invitation excitedly, the guests began to make excuses. The first said, “I have bought a field, and I must go see to it. Please excuse me.” Another said, “I got married, so I can’t come.” Still another said, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I am on the way to try them out. Please excuse me.” Not one person simply said, “I will not come,” rather they simply made up excuses to cover up the fact that they did not want to come.

We’ve all made excuses for things we either don’t want to do or things we are just too lazy to do, but we need to realize that excuses show the inability to accept responsibility and they are the hallmark indicator of the lack of character and maturity. We make a thoughtful list of things we might “give up” for Lent, but unfortunately many of us lack the determination to follow through to the end. We blame circumstances and the reality of life for our failure.

When God came looking for Adam in the Garden of Eden and asked for an explanation of eating the forbiddem fruit, Adam made excuses for himself and blamed everyone but himself for the failure to defend the Garden from the evil one. At this point, denial and blame entered the world.

A respected counselor wrote: All blame is a waste of time. Regardless of how much fault you find, it will not change things. The only thing blame does is keep the focus off you when you’re looking for reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. Blaming others is often just a way of avoiding the truth about yourself.

In the late ’60’s and early 70’s, the comedian Flip Wilson made quite a name for himself by popularizing the expression, The devil made me do it, through his character Geraldine Jones. Everytime Geraldine was tempted to do something that was totally unacceptable, her excuse was that the devil made me do it. The character Flip Wilson created was hysterical, but the excuses were far too familiar to most of us.

The Bible makes it clear that Satan can’t force his desires on humankind, but he can deceive us into making destructuve choices and excuses. When Jesus is in our lives, the devil can’t make us make excuses for our actions because we are listening to Him and making choices according to His will for our lives.

As we enter a new week in the season of Lent, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, “He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”