Excuses Will Leave You in the Same Place!!!

"And they all with one consent began to maker excuse..." (St. Luke 14:18) At one time or another we have all had an excuse or have asked to be excused because we failed at a task or and assignment given to us. Excuses are an explanation or justification for failure! They also appease our guilt even though we have failed at the task. The more we make excuses the easier it is to continue making them. But when we have finished making them we are still in the exact same place as we were before we started them. No Triumph, victories or blessings are gained with excuses. No progress has been made, the task is still at hand, nothing will change behind an excuse!!! And yet excuses in the lives of people are as common asd eating and drinking in everyday life. Some excuses are just out of laziness or unconcern, meaning we did not want to do what we are assigned to do in the first place. So our excuse becomes the justification. But there are some excuses that are "good" 

The Bible spoke of a man that was sick and carried to Jesus by four young men on a stretcher (St. Mark 2:1-12). The bible doesn't give the relationship between the afflicted man and his four beirs, but let's just say that perhaps this was the father of the 4 boys who brought their father to Jesus to be healed. But they could not get into the house because the crowd was so great it blocked the door to the house where Jesus was. The boys very easily could have turned to thier father and said, "Sorry Dad, we can't get in!" And their excuse would have been justified. When they returned home their mother would not have blamed them. In fact, might have commended them on their noble effort.

But these boys were determined, one way or another, to get to Jesus. So they threw out conventional means and made and act of desperation. They climbed on the roof of the house, risking injury and possible arrest, broke up the roof and then make a pulley, possibly out of their own clothes and let the man down into the house. The Bible says Jesus, "saw their faith". In other words He saw their act of desperation that brought about desperate action. Jesus was impressed and healed the man.

Another occasion saw the actions of a woman who had been hemoraging blood for 12 years (St. Mark 5:25 -34). She was sick and broke. No doubt with this  type of condition she suffered dizzy spells, pain in her joints and no doubt had fallen to the ground when she touched the border of Jesus garment. No one would have blamed her if she had stayed at home and not risked being trampled or possibly even dying. But she had come to a point of desperation where even to die trying was better than living in her condition. Her condition was no longer her handicap, but a motivation to be made whole and so she got in the crowd and pressed towards Jesus.

Sometimes we've got "Good" excuses. But our desperation will cause us to discard them and go forward anyway. Otherwise we will remain in the same place.