Taking Responsibility

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One of the sessions in a course I did a few years ago talked about a study that looked at different people's reactions to the story of the prodigal son. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, the story is a parable told by Jesus in the Bible. It tells of a young man who cashed in his family inheritance early, then left home and spent it all on wild living. Once his money was all gone, his "friends" left him. He was hungry and homeless, and went to work for a pig farmer. Life was so bad that he found himself wishing that he could eat the scraps that were fed to the pigs. (The story has a happy ending. The young man comes to his senses and returns to his father, who welcomes him home and restores him to his position in the family.) This study asked, Why did the young man end up in the pig pen wishing that he could eat pig swill? The answers fell into three groups: Group 1 said, Because there was a famine in the country. They blamed circumstances. Group 2 said, Because nobody would give him any food. They blamed other people. Group 3 said, Because he squandered his wealth. They held the young man personally responsible. It strikes me that these are exactly the same responses we can make when things go wrong in our lives. We can blame circumstances or other people, or we can take personal responsibility. The thing is, if we blame circumstances or other people, then we become victims with no way of changing our outcomes. But if we take personal responsibility for the things that have gone wrong in our lives, we have the possibility of making the necessary changes, even though these may be hard, and turning our situation around. What are you doing in your life? Are you taking responsibility, or are you "passing the buck" to circumstances or other people?