The Devil Made Me Do--Oh Skip It

There's something missing from your Bible.

I'm sure Paul meant to include it in one of his letters to the Christians in Corinth, but it just slipped his mind or Satan threw a fiery dart at just the right time...or wrong time...or...well, you know what I mean.

Here's the thing: in one of the lists of spiritual gifts, there should be mention of "avoiding personal responsibility". And by that I mean, the ability to pass the blame for my own muck on to something or someone else.

You can thank Jonathan Acuff for bringing this thought to the surface when he wrote the piece in his book, Stuff Christians Like, titled "Throwing the Devil Under the Bus for Everything":

Sometimes I think we Christians throw satan under the bus for things he might not have been involved with. For instance, if your band at church sucks one Sunday morning, it might be really easy to say, "The enemy sure was attacking service today. None of the songs worked well, and our timing was completely off. What a mess. Satan sure was pressing in on all sides."

I agree, that's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that you guys didn't practice. Nobody showed up on time to rehearse the songs, and when they did, they ended up joking around, pretending they were Lincoln Brewster, or just grumbling about all the songs they'd like to play if the senior pastor would release his death grip on what's "big-church" appropriate. So when Sunday showed up, you sounded about as good as you practiced, which was awful.

Did satan do that? That's debatable. Was he down in hell watching the service saying, "Watch this: The drummer's got a completely different rhythm going and it's killing the bass player's sense of self confidence and timing. My master plan has come to fruition!" Doubtful. I think more likely he was somewhere sinking ships or punching old ladies in the kidney when a demon came and reported, "Hey, Truth Rising Baptist Church had horrible worship music today." To which he responded, "Awesome."

Truth is...I do pretty good at fouling things up without the devil's help. In fact, I make his job pretty easy. Not to say he isn't involved, but when it comes down to who is really responsible...