Mystery Friday Post- No One Is To Blame…

Welcome to the first ‘Mystery Friday Post’. Each Friday, for the forseeable future, I will be sharing with you unique ways that the Lord has revealed something of Christ to me. I have learned the Lord loves to communicate to us in mysterious ways, and that is why I’m calling these posts ‘Mystery Friday Posts’.

Today’s mystery post will continue along the lines of this week’s blog postings. On Tuesday of this past week, I appeared as a guest blogger on another blog. I was asked to share the reasons why I left the institution. In that guest blog, I shared how my exodus out of the institution occurred in three major stages. You can read more about this by clicking here.

Yesterday’s blog post was about a historic meeting that recently occurred in the church community I am a part of now. The meeting we experienced was historic for me as I experienced something that I could never have experienced in the institution. You can read more about this historic church meeting by clicking here.

In today’s post, I’d like to share a song with you. In the mid 1980′s, a British singer songwriter named Howard Jones released a song titled ‘No One Is To Blame’ that became a hit here in the U.S. I remember listening to it on the radio when I was a child numerous times. I was always captivated by the song, yet I wasn’t sure why. Even as a child, it seemed to resonate with something deep inside of me.

I heard the song again recently, and this time the heart of the song came alive to me. As I listened to the lyrics just this last week, I understood the deep frustration that this song communicates. I have carried this frustration my entire life; until now! I couldn’t see it then, but I can see it clearly now.

I learned pretty quickly that the world only offers empty promises. I went after all of them at some point in my life and came up empty. When I first came to faith in Christ as an adult, I heard about the promises that were mine in Christ. I went after them through the grid of the institution, however, and I was continually frustrated. All the promises in Christ seemed just out of reach.

In the institutional system, I was continually told that the dreams and promises of freedom in Christ weren’t being fulfilled in my life because I was to blame. I simply needed to work harder, muster up more faith, pray more, be more obedient, etc…Even though I worked harder, prayed more, was more obedient, it was never enough.

When I became frustrated with the whole of American evangelicalism, I blamed the problems of the system on the people. If only the people loved God more, gave more, prayed more, read the bible more, etc…Oh, how deluded I was. I could see the promises in Christ, I just couldn’t seem to get there. Take a look at the lyrics of the song ‘No One Is To Blame’ and feel this same frustration:

You can look at the menu but you just can’t eat

You can feel the cushions but you can’t have a seat

You can dip your foot in the pool but you can’t have a swim

You can feel the punishment but you can’t commit the sin

And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame

You can build a mansion but you just can’t live in it

You’re the fastest runner but you’re not allowed to win

Some break the rules

And live to count the cost

The insecurity is the thing that won’t get lost

And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame

You can see the summit but you can’t reach it

It’s the last piece of the puzzle but you just can’t make it fit

Doctor says you’re cured but you still feel the pain

Aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain

And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
No one ever is to blame
No one ever is to blame

As I listened to this song recently, I realized that this is exactly how I felt in the institution. There are two words that have freed me from the institutional system, however. Those two words are ‘IN CHRIST’.

I now know that ‘in Christ’, we have been made new.

I now know that for those ‘in Christ’, no one truly is to blame!

It is the world’s system of sin and the flesh that is to blame. In Christ, the world’s systems (including the religious system) and the flesh are blamed and crucified with Christ on the cross. Truly knowing the power of the words ‘in Christ’ have allowed me to be free of this perpetual frustration that the song communicates. The more that I detox from the world’s religious system, the more I can rephrase the lyrics of the song to say something like this:

You can look at the menu, but now in Christ, you can finally eat

You can feel the cushions, but now in Christ, you can finally have a seat (rest)

You can dip your foot in the pool, but now in Christ, you can finally have a swim

In Christ, you no longer feel the punishment because He became the sin

And you want her (church) and she wants you (you belong)
We want everyone

And you want her and she wants you

No one, no one, no one ever is to blame

He can build a mansion, but now in Christ, you can live in it

You’re the fastest runner, but now in Christ, you’re finally allowed to win

We broke the rules
(but in Christ) live to count the cost

Now insecurity is the only thing that gets lost

And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame

You can see the summit, but now in Christ, you can finally reach it (etc…)

You get the picture. As I listened to the song recently, I realized that all of my dreams and aspirations that were formally frustrated are now fulfilled ‘in Christ’. What a beautiful Lord we have been brought into!

Here is the link to this song by Howard Jones. As you listen to it, listen to the frustration that exists out of Christ, and then imagine it being sung with this new perspective; ‘in Christ’.

No One Is To Blame