I won’t lie and say I wasn’t one of the fans fooled by Milli Vanilli back in the day. I mean, who could believe that despite their stylish look, awesome hair, and peppy dancing, they couldn’t actually sing any better than I do (okay, well a little better than I do).

Back in the day when they were a HIT, I was in love with ‘Blame It on the Rain.’ I have no idea why-perhaps the music video made me feel romantic or hip or something. The chorus of the song is great:
Blame it on the rain that was falling, Blame it on the stars that shine at night.
Whatever you do, don’t put the blame on you, Blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah.
My Temptation to Blame It on the Rain
I’m not in the same situation as the song’s subject, but I must say that in my own times of strain, something in me repeats, ‘Whatever you do, don’t put the blame on you.’ Something in me wants to take all the credit for the good and none of the credit for the bad.
Just yesterday, I allowed my children to play with a breakable play tea set, instructing them to be extremely careful. They were, and played well for a few minutes. My little girl then stacked up the cups very carefully on the edge of the coffee table. An hour or so later, I was cleaning up the room and decided to adjust the furniture…not thinking to move the tea cups off the edge of the table. CRASH! went the cups and I looked down to see several of them in pieces.
My little girl came running…’What happened to my tea set? Who broke them? Did my brother break them? Can I see what happened?’ Though my little one is just that-little, I suddenly found myself in my familiar defensive mode. I wanted to say, ‘Well, they fell off the table because you stacked them so high and so closely to the edge.’ I was ready to blame it on her or the rain or anyone but myself.
Thankfully, this was one of the redeemed moments of life and I held my tongue for a minute and then took the blame that was mine. ‘I saw your cups stacked but was not as careful as I should have been and accidentally knocked them over.’ She immediately calmed down and said, ‘Oops, mommy, you made a mistake.’
Jesus’ Thoughts about Blame
The fact that it was difficult to take my share of the blame with a three year old is scary. Because I know it’s about ten times as difficult to do so with my husband or family or friends. Jesus didn’t seem to have a problem with the fact that everyone has some share of the blame for the sin and brokenness in the world. BUT, He did have a strong opinion about how we should view it all.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5
After taking my part of the blame, which was a large part, of course. I was able to explain to my daughter that it’s probably not wise to stack breakable tea cups close to the edge of a table. She agreed and the ordeal was over (besides her tattling to daddy about the incident over dinner). I’m not expecting all breaks and crashes in my relationships to resolve so quickly, but it does seem that if and when I’m willing to first inspect and confess the large plank I’m carrying, the more likely real resolution with others will come.
Don’t Blame, Just Repent
I really wish Milli Vanilli would’ve been the real deal. But, I guess with songs like ‘Blame it on the Rain’ and ‘I Want Money, Lots and Lots of Money’, their lyrics weren’t necessarily pointing me, or anyone else, in the right direction.
Last night, thinking about my need to constantly stop and repent of MY PART in the brokenness, I was drawn away from the dancing twins and towards Derek Webb who sings a great song about repentance, called I Repent.
‘i repent of judging by a law that even i can’t keep
of wearing righteousness like a disguise
to see through the planks in my own eyes’
Your Turn
How have you seen the plank and speck principle work out in your own life? How would life be different for you if you did more plank removal everyday?