Resources | Accountability

Each Saturday morning, starting at 6:15, my calendar is blocked out simply with, Coffee w/Jesus. Should be self-explanatory but someday I will dedicate a post on how this all started.

I bring it up here because at the start of our getting together, I let Jesus hold me personally accountable, accountable for each of my actions or in-actions during the past week. I start by asking myself ten questions and try to justify my answers. I show up knowing it is impossible for me to lie since He has already seen my week and knows the truth better than I am willing to admit.

It has become my 15 minutes each week, out of 10,080, where I force myself to be totally honest. It is not easy, nor is it kind.

To help me through the process and to be consistent, I use a cheat sheet to ask each question and provide room for notes as I answer them out loud, and I do talk out loud, if for no other reason to hear myself trying to justify my actions. By the time I am finished, the sheet tends to be marked up with various comments and admissions. As a final step, I cross out the questions where I felt I was successful and am left with nothing more than broken promises and poor judgement on my part. You can see a sample of what it looks like on this page’s header. No surprise, but often those items not crossed out are the subjects I tend to bring up with Jesus during the rest of the morning as we sip coffee.

To get to the real question here, who do you allow to hold you responsible for your actions? Let me ask that in another way, is there anyone you could go to right now, be totally honest with them, and not shock the heck out of them, or give them pause in trusting you ever again? If you know one or two, congratulations and I mean that, you are at least being honest with someone. Now the real question, do you let them hold you accountable?

The popularity of Accountability Groups come and go. I first learned of them as part of the Promise Keepers movement. I have not heard much about these types of groups at all in the past ten years. My guess is that the “all about me” mentality has finally won out. Let’s face it, those two concepts are polar opposites. Whether it is popular or not today, I would encourage you to find someone in your life to hold you accountable, and no, I do not recommend anyone in your family. Do you really think you can be totally honest about everything in your life with your spouse, especially the part where you are struggling with someone at work who is flirting with you, or you with them?

If no one comes to mind and you honestly have no one you can fully trust to still love you after showing them the real you, do what I do, talk with Jesus. He already knows the worst and even the things your mind still has locked up in your subconscious, yet He waiting for you each day, holding His coffee cup … .

If you need some help starting, here is the link to download the cheat sheet I use.