Those Aren't My Pants

We listen to K-LOVE on the radio every day. One morning, I heard the "one-minute of encouragement" segment, and this is what Francis Anfuso said:

"A friend of mine is a police officer. He told me the funniest thing he ever heard a drug dealer say to him happened when he was frisking him and found a stash of drugs in his pockets. The busted man blurted out, “These aren’t my pants!” Ha! Ha! As if he had put on somebody else’s pants and hadn’t realized there were drugs in the pockets. But, like most of the time when I hear of someone else doing something wrong or foolish, God invariably shows me how I do the same thing. I’m busted by God’s Spirit, and I begin to come up with some lame excuse for why I did it, said it, or thought it. Those ARE my pants! Accept it, Francis! Believe it! Own it! Repent of it, and let Jesus forgive you and restore you."

I see this with my young children daily, trying to dodge the blame for some task not completed. Instead of taking the blame, they easily throw it on someone else. The other day, when one was supposed to be washing the table, but hadn't gotten their sibling's spot cleaned, instead of taking the blame for the lack of work, my child said, "well she didn't pick up her plate, so I couldn't clean her spot." Most often lately, one sibling blames the other sibling in this fashion, "Well he was talking and it distracted me, so I couldn't finish (insert chore)." I remind them that sibling talking didn't stop their hands from completing their work. 

Quite often in life, I know I have done the same. If I didn't get something done, I just blame someone or something else. Instead of admitting to my own laziness, or my choosing to do something more fun. But we cannot seek forgiveness for what we have done wrong if we don't own it and repent. Psalm 69:5 reminds us God sees everything we do. "God, you know my folly; my faults are not hidden from you." Proverbs 28:13 goes further, saying "He who conceals his sins propers not, but he who confesses and forsakes them obtains mercy." In the New Testament, Peter tells people in Acts 3:19, "Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be washed away."

So, I will wear the pants, I will accept my mistakes, I will own it. And I will pray for forgivneess.