Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question can we quit the

blame game and this is based on an

article I read this week about Allan

lickman uh Dr lickman was a history

professor at American University for a

long time but that's not what's made him

famous uh during his time as a history

Professor he developed a predictive

model for presidential elections he

calls it the 13 keys and basically the

model is useful for determining who will

win a presidential election or at least

it was so from Ronald Reagan on lickman

has used his model to correctly identify

the winner of the pre US presidential

election long before the election

actually takes place it's made him

somewhat famous at least in like nerdy

political circles uh that is until

recently when he became Infamous because

his model actually predicted that vice

president Harris would win the most

recent presidential election in other

words he was pretty simply put wrong you

see uh predicting presidential elections

is a zero sum game it's like being a

football coach you won or you lost it's

pretty cut and dry and everyone knows it

if at the end of the game the other team

scored more points than you you lost if

you told us that vice president Harris

was going to win the election and

instead former president Trump won the

election you were wrong simple not a lot

of wiggle room unless I guess you're Dr

lickman Who has recently gone on a media

circuit to every talk show that will

happen have him to explain that he in

fact wasn't wrong now he isn't saying

that his model actually predicted Trump

and he misread it or that he was

misunderstood instead what he's saying

is that his model tells us not who only

who will win but who should win he

actually said that he wasn't wrong the

American voters were wrong that his

model presupposed rationality and

pragmatism and that the American voters

didn't listen to either one of those

things in other words if you and I had

voted the way we should have he would

have been right it's not his fault it's

our fault he wasn't wrong we were wrong

it's an amazing thing to read it's like

a football coach uh going on to the

podium after a loss and explaining how

uh he really won uh we just don't all

realize it or he really won it's just

that his players uh didn't do what he

told them to do it's absurd but what's

even more absurd is that Dr lman at the

end of one of the Articles was asked why

do you think the Democrats lost the

election and his answer was uh they're

always pointing the finger at everyone

else and they refuse to take

responsibility I'm just going to let the

irony sit with you for a minute because

this guy is doing that exact thing and

listen I'm not poking fun at Dr lickman

and this is not political podcast this

is a symptom of a cultural problem we

simply refuse to take responsibility to

say things like I was wrong I'm sorry

will you forgive me now from a Biblical

perspective this is bad for two reasons

one is the core of the Gospel is that we

are wrong we are sinners we are Rebels

first John will say if we say we have no

sin we make God out to be a liar that

forgiveness is actually only available

to those who will confess their sins

those who will admit when they are wrong

listen the road of finger pointing and

blame shifting leads to hell it does not

lead to Heaven an inability and

unwillingness to confess your sin to

admit when you're wrong is ultimately a

sign that you are not trusting Jesus

that's because it's coming from a place

that presupposes that your value and

identity is in getting it right and that

if you got it wrong perhaps maybe you're

not who you thought you were but

Christians are people who say my

identity has nothing to do with me how

could it I'm so often wrong my identity

is bound Up in Jesus Christ therefore if

you show me that I'm wrong I have no

problem admitting it because my

assumption is I'm often wrong my hope is

in the rightness of of Jesus not my own

but but here's the second thing the

Bible repeatedly shows us that

confessing our sin admitting our

mistakes is often the first step to

repentance and to growth if you're never

wrong when do you take ownership if

you're never wrong when do you learn

when do you go back and say what could I

have done differently how should I have

done it differently listen it isn't just

that admitting when you're wrong is

right or that admitting when you're

wrong is just it's that admitting that

you're wrong is often the first step

towards actual growth a society that

cannot confess when it's wrong is a

society that is done growing the same is

true for your family and for your

individual lives so while it's fun to to

to to point out the irony and

Ridiculousness of political pundants who

can't admit when they were wrong who

can't admit when they lost uh it's a lot

harder to realize that the same thing

exists in me and in you so I'm going to

end this episode with a challenge uh

where have you been resisting the

obvious fact of being wrong and who do

you need to call right now and say I

don't know why I've been saying I'm not

I'm ready to say I am wrong I am sorry

will you forgive me because if you'll

stop playing the blame game then you're

ready to grow hey thanks so much for

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