My friend Clayton is trying to get into blogging. I thought I would give him a boost. (Hey buddy, you can’t ride with training wheels forever, get your own blog :))

Guest Blogger: Clayton King
I remember the good old days when there was “an election year.” Twelve months before a Presidential election and everyone began raising money, airing commercials and doing their best to convince the country to vote for them. Those days are gone. Politics has become a circus and politicians run perpetually, around the clock, every day of every year. And the thing that drives me most crazy is how the media manipulates issues to bring a sense of blame and guilt on Americans for every single thing that is wrong in the history of the world.

While we are not innocent by any means, we are also not to blame for the fallen state of humanity. But this is not a reflection on the good old stars and stripes or a rant about patriotism. This is about my own personal decision to become part of the solution and not the problem.

I have never personally tortured anyone, burned down a rainforest, intentionally kept a family in poverty, or dropped bombs on civilians in a middle-eastern country. I have also never hurt anyone in Darfur or taken giant bribes while working for the United Nations. I have never clubbed a seal or purposefully discharged an entire bottle of hairspray to open a hole in the ozone. And I have never even been to the polar ice caps, so I certainly have never built a bonfire on a glacier just to watch it melt and raise ocean levels.

My point is, it’s not all my fault. And it’s not all your fault either. But there seems to be a “mood” afoot today, whether instigated by the media, legalistic Christians or the very lord of darkness himself, that says we should all feel guilty about how things are on our little planet.

But emotions of guilt accomplish nothing. NOTHING. I have learned this with my own two boys. Making them feel guilty for their misbehavior simply brings shame, and shame cripples us into inability and inactivity. If guilt is all we feel (for poverty, corporate corruption, materialistic waste, AIDS in Uganda), we simply try to transfer that guilt to someone else by looking for another scapegoat to blame for the horrendous mess in our world.

So I am stopping the madness.

I declare that it is NOT my fault. None of it. I will not take the blame for all the ills and evils that plague our planet.

But I also declare that it IS my responsibility. As a man who loves Jesus Christ and follows Him as my Lord and King, I am compelled to act out of compassion to heal a broken world because that is what He did.
I am guilty of countless sins and evils, but because I have been redeemed, I need to minister redemption to the world.

I will not not just sigh and moan when I see pictures of hungry kids on late night info-mercials. I will use my influence to speak for those children, raising awareness and dollars. I will go. I will give. I will pray. I will listen and pay attention.

Since 1998, students at our Crossroads Camps have raised over $360,000 for hungry children in orphanages in India. They see the pictures and hear the statistics, and they do something about it.

So quit thinking it is your fault. That is a coward’s way out. Be brave and take responsibility. Take the initiative and change things.
Your guilt will disappear and your energy will be used to love those around you with the love of Christ.

Winston Churchill said “It is easy to criticize. It is much more difficult to create.” Forget blame. Give us responsibility!