Bella Vista Church of Christ
LIFELINES
April 3, 2002 Kirk Castleman
The Real Issue
James provides us with some potent wisdom: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. (James 4.1-2)
The easy thing to do is to point the finger at others and insist that the "problem" is NOT ME, but "them"! We like to think that all of our problems are because of what someone else has done or said to us or about us! It happens in churches all the time: the leaders make a decision and we are not "happy" because of what "they" did! All these problems are because of "them" or "him" or "her"!
All this time we thought the issues were "doctrinal." It is easy to convince ourselves that the problems are due to what someone else said or wrote or did! Pointing the finger of blame at others takes attention, we think, away from ourselves! Our world is filled with those who constantly play the "blame game": Blame the government! Blame the schools! Blame the "system"! Blame the church! Blame God! There's the problem! It's not me, it's "them"!
Years ago there was a tract, "A Better World Begins With Me"! When will we ever learn that the real problems have their origin in our hearts! Way down in our soul there are "lusts that wage war" that are the real cause of our problems! It's no "them," it's me! If we spent just half of the time looking and correcting ourselves as we spend griping about "them," wonder what the world would be like? Why is it that some people are so continuously joyous and contented? Wouldn't it be great if we really practiced Matthew 7.1-3 and Philippians 4.4-13? Wonder what the world would be like? Wonder what this church would be like? Wonder what I would be like?
Kirk Castleman
Humble, Texas
