I’m not the problem! It’s not my fault. I’m just reaping the results! ‘Feel’ familiar? I must admit I do hate being blamed for something that wasn’t my fault. And, we’ve all experienced this. Unfortunately there are too many times when the person hurling the accusation, typically your supervisor, does not want to hear that they singled out the wrong person. Have you noticed that it is also at this precise moment that the person making the accusation is totally uninterested in whatever you might want to say? They simply are highly irritated and you happened to be the target. Being a target is extremely frustrating.
It’s at this moment we typically start thinking about what am I going to do? How do I exonerate myself? Wrong emphasis! Worry about exonerating later, seeing what can be done to resolve the situation should be our focus. Once the ‘crisis’ is resolved you can determine if you can effectively correct the mis-perception. And accept the fact that maybe you won’t be able to – sometimes you just don’t find ‘justice’. Sometimes it’s a situation that someone has to be the scapegoat and you drew the short straw. And sometimes you have to recognize that no one is really to blame.
So now the ‘issue’ is resolved and you’ve discovered that there is no opportunity to receive vindication. What do you do now? It is always difficult to continue working with someone who won’t accept that what happened was not of your making. Do you quit? If you continue – how do you continue? My suggestion is that you won’t be able to continue on your own – you will need to discover what the Lord wants for you. As difficult as it may be you need to turn and see what God expects from you. Do we even see His hand? Do we look for it? We can’t just believe God is in control, we need to act on this. There’s no reason to doubt.
This type of situation, which everyone experiences you really aren’t the only one, is a time of discovering what you’re made of. Do you remember the story of Job? Everyone around him was telling him it was his fault for the state he found himself in. They were telling him to curse God and turn from Him. What did Job do? He didn’t understand ‘why’ what happened, he obviously didn’t like what was happening, but he also refused to lay the blame at God’s feet. He did not seek to blame. It is a case of rising above the situation. Not easy… especially if it was not your fault.
