Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Its all HER fault!



“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, of who you are, into something a little different from what it was before. ~ C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

It’s really easy to sit back and point our fingers and say, “It’s all Eve’s fault!”  I know, I know, I do it regularly…actually I did it a couple minutes ago. Life is so much easier when we let ourselves off the hook for our choices, decisions, and thoughts. It happens all the time, almost everywhere you turn, the finger is pointing outward, deflecting any consequences (or acknowledgement of consequences) towards events, people or situations.  How about turning on your TV this evening and watch approximately 22 minutes. I can almost guarantee in those 22 minutes you will hear at least one politician pointing his/her finger at their opponent. Now, some politicians may actually be blameless, but that would be because they had never held a political office before.

Catch the drift here?  Our fingers are so busy pointing elsewhere that we are blinded by the fact that OUR choices define who we are…our decisions, our mindset, our directions. That is the beauty of C.S. Lewis’ quote above. Every time we make a decision, a choice, we are ever so slightly different than the moment before the choice was made.

Sure, Eve had a choice to make, and as a result of her choice, the entire sum of humanity points their collective boney fingers at her with the thought, “I couldn’t help it, it’s all HER fault!” Now, some of you may be a bit more benevolent and point to Adam who, as we read in Genesis 3:6, “…She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Emphasis mine)  Yes, you read that correctly. It’s a surprise to some of you I know. The entire time that slick exotic fruit salesman was doing his best Billy Mays impersonation for Eve, Adam was standing right there, listening, watching, doing what most of us finger pointers do best…nothing.

So, we can all point to Eve, or to Adam…maybe we all can collectively point our fingers at the slick fruit salesman…but to do so means you miss the point of the story, entirely.

The Story begins with this simple, but widely missed point; God desires nothing less than to have a close, personal, Father/Child relationship with us, but we must choose to enter into, develop and maintain that relationship. The entire point of creation is US!

Yes, Adam and Eve chose poorly…Cain messed up royally…Noah apparently had a drinking problem…Ham, Noah’s son was a gossip and trouble maker – all these folks made really bad decisions, and serious consequences followed.

Here is the exciting thing about The Story, even in light of all those mess ups and all the additional mess ups throughout history, God still desires a relationship with each one of us and has provided the way for that relationship to be restored.

God’s core passion in all the beauty of His creation is US! We are still His core passion, and the rest of The Story is about how He will hold nothing back to get you back.  Now, that is a decision that will “turn us into something different that we were before.”

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