How much are we responsible for the problems we create?

Is it someone’s fault that they have been diagnosed with cancer?

Difficult to say. It’s an unpopular opinion to blame a six-year-old for a brain tumor. And yet, as a culture, we have way less empathy for the 50-year chain smoker. There is so much variance because of the choices we make, the resources we have, what we have been taught, the genetic cards we have been dealt with, and the environment we interact in…

Here’s the thing, there is always a line of reasons we can choose to believe where the circumstances are not our fault. We are a victim of what is happening around us. We are overwhelmed by the amount decisions we have to make on a daily basis. Sometimes we roll the dice and lose. However, there is an alternative. A radical one. You can choose to take responsibility for all your actions.

The first approach may temporarily make us feel better. But when we take responsibility, even for the things we feel are not our fault, we are also saying we can take responsibility to change our circumstances.

This is powerful. It means you can act upon the world and not just be a passenger.

At the same time, this is so difficult to do. Not everyone is going to embrace this. Perhaps, grief is so painful, this is impossible to do. And I get that. This post isn’t to minimize people’s suffering. Instead, it’s written to highlight that we are also not victims of our circumstances if we choose. And when we have choices it means we can make different ones.

Life is out of control, and taking the little responsibility we have may be all we got. When we take responsibility, it changes our posture and how we walk through this life.