Start of something new

Hello...

Today, I have decided to do something a little different. Recently I have been part of a lot of conversations that have made it clear that there is a global, widespread misunderstanding of the Bible and of Christianity generally. If we're looking critically at the way these things have been represented by some people, I completely understand where that confusion is coming from. I can't claim to understand everything and honestly, I don't think that's a bad thing. But I do think that I might be able to shed some light on how I understand these things with the hope that someone somewhere might gain some clarity.

Okay, starting from the very beginning, I wanted to talk about the Great Sin - the Eve and Adam conundrum that I'm sure we're all familiar with in some way or the other. So in the beginning, Eve and Adam lived in the garden of Eden; this beautiful oasis with trees of every kind and huge rivers. They were told that they could eat whatever they wanted except the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because then they would certainly die. They were pretty content with this, until the serpent came along. It asked Eve if God had told them they could not eat from any tree and of course she set it straight. But then it told her that she would not die if she ate from that particular tree but that she would be like God, 'knowing good and evil' and that that was why God did not want them to eat from it. 'Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.' And so she ate from it and invited Adam to do the same thing. Once they had done the deed, they could feel shame. They tried to hide from God, but He found them and asked why and Adam told Him what had happened. At this point, they were cast out of the garden and forced to live with endless labour and pain, with the tree of life being guarded. This was the first big sin that led to everything else. People were created to be with God, but our desire to be like Him, alienated us.

I've heard this story a lot and so I can't really imagine what it feels like to hear it for the first time. But I can imagine that it's hard to understand why God would restrict them from this tree. What's wrong with knowledge? And to be honest, it's not something I can say I have completely figured out. But what I do know is that we always think we know what's best for us. But even in the best case scenarios, we do not know the full story. There are endless possibilities we cannot even begint to take into account and so even though we can make the decisions that seem best, they are not completely 'informed'. Another important thing to consider is that Eve may never have eaten that apple if the serpent didn't make her feel like she was missing out on something. Now that's a concept that I think might be really easy to identify with right now. We can be so content until someone makes us feel that we're missing out by not doing certain things. And then all of a sudden, the principles that have brought us so far are dropped as we try to fit in. And unfortunately, we can only pretend to be something we're not for so long. Finally, I find it interesting to try to figure out why the thought being like God was so tempting for Eve... and why it's so tempting for us now. We have this saying - 'playing God', which is when someone tries to use their power to make decisions over people's lives, but I think it can also simply mean trying to exert a lot of control over something. God is powerful. On some level, whoever made this quote must have known that. And we like to feel powerful. We like to feel in control of our lives and of our situations. We don't like having to wait or depend on people. And I actually get that. But the fact is, there's very little we are actually in control of. And everytime we try to take control of things that were never meant for us, we burn out. Fortunately for us, this is definitely not where the story ends, but I think this is such a fitting beginning to the Bible as it shows how far we can fall when we try to be who we are not.

God bless.

Dera