Accountable By Choice

Most people follow one of two paths in life. The first and most common one is the care-free life, one without accountability. This was me. Although I was a responsible person, I had a fear of commitment which prevented me from being accountable not only to myself but to God and others.

The other is a path of confusion, worry, and regret. It’s the path without purpose, without meaning, without direction, more like a confusing maze that makes your head spin and never leads to anywhere you want to go, let alone be fulfilling.

I know both these paths all too well because I lived them for the first thirty years of my life.  I was carefree and yet confused at the same time. Care-free because I didn’t hold myself accountable and confused because my life felt meaningless. I didn’t have a clue what I was meant for or to do in life. I was tossed like a wave in the ocean.

My life was a series of random experiences with an emptiness in the middle. I always felt like I was getting ready to live, but could never figure out how to actually “step up to the plate” so to speak due to my commitment issues. That is until I gave my life to Jesus Christ. That’s when it finally all clicked for me. God needs me to be accountable to Him, myself, and others.

The age of accountability refers to the time in a person’s life when he or she is capable of making a decision whether to trust Jesus Christ for salvation and to start living accordingly. And so the battle begins…Being accountable is more than just some self-will discipline, it’s also a type of spiritual warfare.

Being accountable is important. Whether it is politics, sports, education, or personal habits, human relationships depend on us being accountable. But more importantly, what does the Bible have to say about accountability? Accountability in the church should be normal practice as we help one another fight against sin and pursue holiness. This battle against temptation affects every person since temptations are “common to man” (1 Corinthians 10:13) and “it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come” (Matthew 18:7).

In the face of such temptation, many Christians seek out an “accountability partner” to pray with and help share the burdens that come with doing spiritual warfare. It is good to have a brother or sister in Christ, someone we can count on when we are facing temptations. King David was alone the evening that Satan tempted him into adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). The Bible tells us we fight a war not of the flesh but of the spirit, against powers and spiritual forces who threaten us (Ephesians 6:12).

The whole accountability thing was really starting to get the best of me, mainly because I didn’t recognize it as spiritual warfare at the time. I struggled so much that I ended up getting really depressed. There was even talk of divorce, my whole world was about to come crashing down on me.