In 2009 Ms. Thompson was arrested for burglary of a children’s medical center in Torrance, California.
Hers is an unusual case for several reasons: First, because the burglar was a woman. By far the great majority of burglars are men. Second, because she was given three years for her crime. Too many people walk from such nonviolent crimes. Third, because she is eighty!
In explaining her crime, she told the court that if the she had more money coming from the government she would not have to steal. Wow! Her crime is the governments fault.
Unfortunately, she is not the only guilty person to blame their sins on someone else. Here is the problem with her excuse: she was also arrested for theft in 1965, 1977, and for burglary in 1980, and 2008. Her criminal record started 55 years ago, yet this one was the fault of the government for not giving her more money.
She is not so different from most folks. When caught in sin we seek someone else to blame. It is the fault of our mother, our father, our husband, our wife, or whoever else we can find. Until we are willing to accept responsibility for our own actions we are certain to keep messing up.
Many years ago, a teenage girl in our congregation ran away from home. After about a week she came to see me. She told me how hard things had been. She told me that the only thing she did wrong was that because she was hungry and had nothing to eat she stole some food. In reality her excuse for stealing was a snow job. She did not fool me; she fooled herself. She did not steal because she was hungry and desperate for food. She stole because her pride was too great to call her family or even me.
We love to make excuses, but what we need to do is confess our sins and behave righteously.
After the 80-year-old woman was sentenced to three years she said to the judge, “I feel guilty for asking this, but is this a solid three years or is it just half time?” When caught she blamed. When sentenced for her crime she tried to escape the pain.
Don’t do that!
~Lonnie Davis