Only the weak need support!! Don't they?

Don't know what has got into the world at large out there!!

The new word is "accountability" and everyone is on the bandwagon.

You need to be accountable for this and accountable for that - even churches have gone completely bonkers with the whole 'accountability' thing.

From men's meetings to morning tea rosters we need to hold each other accountable. We need to talk about our lives and keep tabs on each other.

So, methinks, why do we need programs like this? Do I need to be reminded to do the obvious things?

We get the car serviced, we mow lawns, we brush our teeth, we take the dog out for walkies, get the dinner on the table in fact we do all the right stuff and never go to meetings about it and hold each other 'accountable', just in case we don't remember!!

NO! I don't reckon we need people to keep telling us "Hey! don't forget.....it's wrong to cheat on your wife or steal from your company!  Don't do things like that"

C'mon guys!! isn't that pretty obvious!!

So I don't get it. Aren't we all accountable to God? Aren't we supposed to look out for our own souls? Watch over our own lives?

LET'S JUST THINK ABOUT THIS!

All of the above is absolutely right and correct: we are all accountable to God. One day each of us will have an appointment with Jesus to discuss the way in which we've lived.

We have to get over the very modern and 'in' thing to do and I may add the very Western World idea that we are independent, autonomous entities.

We are linked eternally to Jesus Christ and in so doing we are also linked to other believers.

We are told in Hebrews and Thessalonians that we need to 'encourage' one another in the faith - doesn't that also imply some sort of 'accountability"?

As Christians we need to hold each other accountable - someone with whom we can confide in our battle to overcome sin and temptation.

If David had had an accountability partner - His adultery with Bathsheba and the resulting murder of Uriah would never have happened.

An accountability partner can be there to encourage us; rebuke us; teach us; grieve with us and to share our happiness and sadness. A shoulder to cry on and to confide our inmost secrets.

An accountability partner also is there to warn of impending dangers as they see it - them to you and you to them.

If Solomon of the thousand wives had had an accountability partner he or she would have seen impending danger and warned Solomon of his folly.

Many years ago my Sister and her friend learned a poem about the "Ambulance in the Valley" about how the cliff edge of this town was so slippery and how many many people had fallen to their doom.

The cry went up "a fence at the top or an ambulance in the valley" - the ambulance won the day and every day the rescuers picked folk up from the valley floor and scuttled them off to hospital.

Until the idea hit them " If the cliff we will fence, we might also dispense with the ambulance down in the valley."

Phew! they got it - the moral of the story: Prevention is better than cure.

So it is with our Accountability partners - both partners are responsible and hold each other accountable to keep our eyes focused on our Lord and not on ourselves.

Accountability partners can keep us looking forward to prevent the consequences of our bad choices and not just being there to pick up the pieces as we fall into a heap at the bottom of a valley of our own making.

We all will give an account to God one day and that thought alone should sober even the most hard-hearted among us into living right.

Unfortunately, the prospect of standing before God later doesn't always motivate us to live now in a way that honours God, nor does it deter us from wrong choices.

We need each others help in our walk along this rocky road - don't let your pride dictate the terms.

Be prepared to share your aspirations; dreams; secrets; and on-going temptations with someone with whom you can talk and trust.

Romans 12:10 commands Christians to be devoted to one another in love. Can we really do this from a distance, as strangers?