1-2-3...STRIKE OUT!

MMI had this really good (but sad) article called Busted: Are You a Three Strike Pastor? from November of last year. I fully realize that pastors and other clergy members have somewhat of a higher accountability to maintain, but what about the rest of us? What about regular Christians? Should we have the same types of aims and goals of keeping ourselves above trouble by having extra accountability and a level of transparency when it comes to our personal lives?

To my non-Christian readers: Obviously everyone has some kind of moral code, what does accountability look like for you?

What do ALL of us do to keep ourselves from being tempted to do things that will hurt others and hurt ourselves?

What should we do when we find ourselves striking out, messing up and feeling guilty?
The MMI article has a good outline and I'm on the same wavelength as them. My unabashedly Christian perspective is as follows.
The book of Ecclesiastes (one of my favorite Bible books) ends with one of my favorite Bible quotes: Fear God and keep His command, for this is the whole duty of man. I am afraid of going to hell ya'll, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. But more than that, I know how much God loves me, and loves all of humanity, and because I have accepted the position of child in my relationship with Him, and because I am so grateful for what a loving Father He has become to me, I'd like to make Him happy. So I'm going to follow Him and do what He says to do. I'll do my best to be a good kid for Him and when I fall short, He picks up the slack for me. He tells me to confess my faults to Him and to my fellow Christians. Now to get back on the point of my above questions, that's one way I keep myself accountable. I confess my sin, my struggles, my temptations. I find that the more inclined I am to want to hide my sin, the more I ought to confess it - both to God in private and to a trusted fellow Christian(s). So, at times it's been difficult to make myself admit to something very ugly or EMBARRASSING. Yet, when I do that, it truly has helped me, by God's grace (not my own), to overcome that sin and struggle. And no wonder - since it is the way God sets forth in His Beautiful Instruction Book.


Above photo by j / f / photos.