Skip to main content

A thing

            And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:11)

You know the story behind the verse from Genesis. Adam and Eve listened to what the serpent told them and ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They discovered they were naked and hid from God.

Who did tell Adam and Eve they were naked? Scripture says that they discovered it. I find myself wondering about what they discovered. Was it really just that they were wearing no clothing, or did they discover that they were lacking other things that were far more important? Was the clothing issue a distraction? God seems to suggest that it was because He asks about the tree – the real problem. It is only after he deals with the consequences of the real problem that He kills animals to provide them with clothing. But it’s worth noting that He did deal with that issue, too.

So, from Adam and Eve to me and you. Well, to me anyway. It seems to me I spend half my life whining about what a miserable failure I am in one way or another. Every now and again, this passage comes to mind as I lament. Who told me that I’m a failure? Most of the time, it’s not God. In fact, it tends to be me, and my definition is that things are not exactly the way I want them to be.

So what if, instead of confirming yet again to ourselves that everyone around us must be laughing at what useless failures we are, we ran to God and cried, “I’m a failure!” Would He say, “So what?” or would He ask, “Who told you that you were a failure?” What if we confessed that we had told ourselves?

I doubt God would do exactly the same thing every time, but one thing He would do is deal with the truth of the matter. We might actually be a failure, or we might not. He would probably deal in some way with the failure itself in addition to our feelings about it.

As I thought about this, a story I’ve told before came to mind. A speaker told of her daughter coming home one day upset because someone at school had called her “short.” The mother put an arm around the girl and said, “Well, Honey, you are short.” Then she helped the girl reframe the issue. Being short wasn’t a bad thing or a good thing, it was just a thing.

Being a failure may just be a thing, too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more