Excuses - 3 March 2010

If we don’t want to do something, or attend some function we ought to, we make an excuse.  Often it’s a pretty pathetic one and we know it, but hopefully it will get us out of doing what we know we should.  If pressed we will expand the excuse, get away with it and then feel guilty about it later.

We all make mistakes from time to time and sometimes we know we are doing wrong, but when challenged about it we make excuses.  But be warned.  Do not break the eleventh commandment : Don’t get caught!

Now we look, at best, silly, and quite possibly we are exposed as wrongdoers to those who know us.  Yet still we try to make another excuse.  It wasn’t our fault we did that, it was because………

In the past Presidents and Politicians have all been exposed.  More recently we found that John Terry, Ashley Cole and even Tiger Woods have been doing wrong. The one thing they all had in common was making excuses for their actions.  When Tiger Woods made his public apology he said that he thought because of who he was and in his position he could do these things.

King David made the same mistake, thinking as King he could do as he wished in      2 Samuel.

When Nathan informed him of God’s anger he threw himself on God’s mercy, but without trying to make excuses.  In Psalm 51, David pleads for mercy from God and for renewed cleanliness and a return to God’s love.

We may be able to hide our misdeeds from our fellow man, if only for a short while, but God knows everything we do and there is no hiding place from him.  And be sure that no excuse carries any weight with him.

Lord, you know all that I am and my every thought and act is not hidden from you. Grant me the wisdom and strength to do only that which pleases you, so that I need look for no excuses. Amen.