Ever had a leaky faucet? If so, you may be aware that ignoring even a small leak can prove costly. When it comes to experiencing God’s peace, there’s another slow drip that can cost you plenty—a habit of blaming God. Some of us engage in the practice so regularly we barely notice we are doing it. Whenever something goes wrong, we ask why God allowed it.
This question is asked ad nauseam in the media. Shortly after Princess Diana died in an automobile crash, Philip Yancey received a call from a television program. “Can you appear on the show?” the producer asked. “We want you to explain how God could possibly allow such a terrible accident.”
Philip had his own questions: “Could it have had something to do with a drunk driver going ninety miles an hour in a narrow tunnel? How, exactly, was God involved?”1
Many people have publicly blamed God for mistakes they made. A boxer by the name of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini made this comment after throwing a punch that killed another boxer: “Sometimes I wonder why God does the things he does.” And what about the young woman who wrote to Dr. James Dobson: “Four years ago, I was dating a man and became pregnant. I was devastated! I asked God, ‘Why have You allowed this to happen to me?’”2
Huh? Whatever happened to taking personal responsibility?
You and I may not be guilty of such irrationality, but we may blame God for bad things that happen simply because we live in the midst of a fallen world. Blaming God is a surefire way, not of experiencing more of his peace, but of draining every last drop of it from our lives.
- Philip Yancey, Reaching for the Invisible God (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 56.
- Ibid.
