“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord God; so turn, and live.” (Ezekiel 18:30-32) The only one responsible for you is you. We can play the blame game at every turn, but when it all finally gets sorted rightly, we are truly the only one who will answer for what we ourselves did. Transgressions great or small, acts of kindness the same, we have been endowed by God with freedom of choice. What has been done by us or even to us by others need not be reflected in our future behavior is the theme projected by today’s verses. Clearly, our Creator loves His creation and seeks for all of it to abide in Him. The fact is that we must choose, of our own free will, to do that, regardless of our heritage or personal history. It doesn’t matter the origin of our ancestors, the amount in our bank account, or our place in society, God makes it abundantly and easily understood that we are in control of our behavior which will lead us ultimately into redemption or condemnation. Just like the choices made by Adam and Eve, we cannot blame anyone but ourselves for what we do. Sure, things beyond our control will happen, but our reaction to those events and our resulting behavior are still ours. Deciding each time to grab onto the Lord’s help is a learned habit. It isn’t impossible with God’s help. Will we slip or will we always succeed? We’re fallible because of the weakness of our flesh but the Lord sees much deeper than that. So own your responsibility, do what God expects, and when that weak flesh takes over, send repentance up to the Lord. He’ll still love you and maybe even love you more, if that’s possible.