Not mine!The implication, of course, is that no person at the bank is responsible. Computers make mistakes or get tired or become ill. Why blame people? We may call this line of thinking an “agentic shift”...the process whereby humans transfer responsibility for an outcome from themselves to a more abstract agent.
TECHNOPOLY: THE SURRENDER OF CULTURE TO TECHNOLOGY
How often do we do this...shift responsibility elsewhere? I see it done; I do it. Not necessarily malevolently. But done, nonetheless. If I’m too quick with the tongue, it’s because my body hurts. If I skip time with the Lord this afternoon, it’s because I have too much else going on. If I don’t invite the neighbors over for supper, it’s because they’re too busy anyway.
Why would anyone want to own up to their bad responses? Well, maybe so we can change? Make it right? Better reflect Christ’s glory?
If anyone should realize the trouble that shifting begets, it should be believers.
"The man said, 'The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.'
Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'"
~ Genesis 3:12, 13
These first shifters ushered in the state of victimhood and we see the trouble it caused. But we also see the glory it brought. A Savior stepped in and took the ultimate blame for them, when it wasn’t even his fault. Because of that, as believers in His innocence, we have the confidence and courage to come clean with our own sins, and trade our weakness for His strength.If we’ll just admit we need Him.
I need Him.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
~ 2 Corinthians 12:9,10
