Can We Blame It on the Weather?

Midwestern newspapers described the summer of 1873 as a season when “tropical weariness drooped over all.”  Heaviness hung like the sweat dripping   from trousers, woolen skirts, and long-sleeved shirts, as people performed their daily tasks. That stifling heat would be blamed for everything under the blazing sun— rampant spread of Malarial Fever that “burned deep into the very bones of the people,” the death of a prominent central Illinois man from a pistol wound, and the eruption of  Miss Adaline’s famous temper when she  hit her husband in the face with a spittoon, promptly sending him to the hospital.

Blame has been a natural response since the Garden of Eden.  Like the men and women who blamed a sweltering, disease laden summer for everything from duels to abused husbands, we still play the blame game today. History is filled with such accounts. But the bible is the greatest history book every written, and its Author has much to say about personal responsibility…

In 2 Corinthians 5, God reminds us that we will  stand alone before Him in judgement of our earthly deeds, whether good or evil.  Nowhere does it teach that we carry another’s responsibility. The choice is ours, no matter the circumstance, the decisions of another, or even the weather!