Personal Responsibility

In our society today there are many things that are tearing down our communities. My community is no different.  One of the biggest issues that I seem to see is a lack of personal responsibility and accountability for our actions.  This is not a new problem, it’s been around since Adam sinned in the garden and he tried to blame God and “the woman He gave him” when he ate from the one tree that God had commanded him not to eat from.

Knowing that this is a problem, especially within the youth of our community, I am always looking for ways to train up the youth we work with in this area.  One way that I enjoy teaching life lessons is through sports, especially basketball. For the past 3 years I have been coaching a team at one of our local city parks.  What I often tell the kids is that basketball is about much more than learning how to score and play defense. If they listen and pay attention, they will learn valuable life lessons that will have an impact on their life now and later.

Recently our team and families went down to New Orleans to watch an NBA game.  During the game, two boys were fooling around in their seats, distracting their teammates and the people around them. When I saw this I went over to them to diffuse the situation and correct them for the way they were carrying themselves.

When I got there I asked “Boy 1” to move over so that I could sit in between the two of them. Much to my surprise he told me he wasn’t moving.  After a little time however he finally moved.  I turned to “Boy 1” and asked him why they were cutting up.  In his silence I could see that he didn’t want to talk.  From there, I tried to play out the situation for them and attempted to remind them how a man of God conducts himself.  "Boy 1" chose to angrily get up and walk away from me and the other boy.  So I turned and asked “Boy 2” why he was cutting up.  His response was, “He started it and wouldn’t leave me alone.”  This is a typical response from most of the boys on the team when there is any argument. We went on to talk about how he is still responsible for his actions and his part in the situation.

Later, the other coach and I decided that a fair consequence would be for “Boy 1” to be suspended from the entire next game because of his behavior and disrespect after correction and “Boy 2” would have half a game suspension for behavior at the game.  Later that day I went to pick up the boys before practice to discuss this.  After I finished talking “Boy 1” was furious and kept saying that it wasn’t fair and that they should both have the same suspension.  I tried explaining the reasoning but he wasn’t hearing it.  It was at that point that he told me that he was “no longer going to be a part of the team and that he didn’t have to listen to anybody but himself”.  He left the car, went inside and brought me his jersey. Once "Boy 2" saw that his friend had really quit and wasn’t coming back in the car he looked at me and said, “I’m going to take my punishment.  I know that I did wrong and deserve more than this.” His behavior and attitude from then on was one of respect and self control.

So why would the two boys respond so differently?  Both, for the last year and half have been claiming to want to grow in their walk with God and have been part of a discipleship group.  Both have been attending church on a regular basis.  Both have been on the team together for the past 2 seasons.  I believe that Jesus’ Parable of the Sower in Mark 4 speaks to this.  Jesus tells his disciples that there are four different types of soil that the sower sowed his seed on, but only one soil actually produced grain and was growing.  Each of the other soils had their own issues. The first soil was so hard that the seeds never entered it and the birds came and took them away. The second was so shallow that the roots never went deep enough into the soil to last. The third soil was so full of thorns that the seeds were choked out.  Jesus later explained to his disciples that the seed is the word of God and that when the word is sown on the good soil it is heard and accepted and then it bears fruit.  In this particular situation we see that fruit was produced in the life of “Boy 2” by him repenting from his ways and accepting responsibility for his actions; while the soil for “Boy 1” was not ready for the seed.

As God’s children we must care for our soil so that when we hear the word of God it will fall on good soil and will produce fruit in our lives.  Just like “Boy 2” one of the ways we can take care of our soil is by living a lifestyle of repentance. By humbly recognizing our sin and turning to the forgiveness and new life given through Jesus! Please pray that "Boy 1" would realize we serve a loving and gracious God worthy of our repentance.