Barge - Part 4

Imagine you're the first person who ever told this story. You're creative, you're insightful, and you also have a whole lot of pride for your tribe. You want your people to know how special they are, and how much the gods favor them. This is the fourth part of the story - a continuation of the story you've been telling the last few days after dinner. You're people gather around the fire, and you begin . . .

And so, the Great Power blessed Noah and his sons. The Great Power also gave them the task of refilling the earth with their bloodline. 

And the Great Power told Noah, "All the birds and the beasts will be afraid of you, as well as everything that creeps on the ground and swims in the sea. Why? Because they will be food for your people. No longer are you only authorized to eat anything green that comes out of the ground, but you can eat anything you want. Just don't eat anything that's still alive, because the blood is for me. For now on, I require blood offerings from both man and beast. Since blood represents life, I need a continuous token of your devotion to me."

And so, that's why we make the sacrifices we do today. We believe that the Great Power has favored us above all other tribes and people groups, and that the Great Power needs sacrifices in order to make sure we're devoting ourselves to what the Great Power represents. 

The Great Power continued, "Whoever takes the life of a human will be avenged by a human. You are all marked with my image, so don't forget that. Now go out and make babies. Fill the earth with your bloodline."

Then the Great Power told Noah, "I'm establishing the following covenant with you and your family, and every living thing that's on the earth right now, as well as every living thing after you: there will never be a flood that destroys creation again. The sign of this covenant will be the bow of colors you see in the sky right now."

And Noah looked up and saw what we call today a rainbow. It looked just like the bow we use to hunt with, but was full of many different colors. 

And the Great Power continued, "Whenever a storm comes, it'll be dark and cloudy. But after the storm moves on, you'll see that the colored bow replaces the clouds signifying this covenant I've made with you today. And when I look at the bow, I'll be reminded of the covenant I've made with all living creatures from here on out."

Now Noah's sons are the ones who got the ball rolling. They had to sleep with their own tribeswomen in order to start repopulating the earth.

Noah took all the pairs of plants out of the barge and started gardening. He also created a vineyard with the grapes he'd taken on the barge. In the season of harvest, Noah used the grapes to make wine, and one night he got very drunk and out of control. He didn't know where he was or what he was doing, so he stripped down naked and started flopping around in the tent where everyone slept. 

Not having a clue, Ham stepped inside and saw the show. He didn't know what to do or say, so quickly got out of the tent before his dad could see him and he told his brothers what he saw.  With a smile on their faces, they knew their father was just having a little too much fun. So, they grabbed a blanket, walked inside, and covered their dad. It was a very nice thing to do. But when Noah woke up and heard about what happened, he was upset that his son Ham didn't cover him right away when he saw what was going on. 

So Noah angrily told Ham, "Because you didn't clothe me when I was naked, your people will be slaves to your brothers' people. The Great Power that guides Shem will be your master. The Great Power that guides Japheth will also be your master. And because of what your brothers did for me, I will allow their tribes and families to marry together and help each other repopulate the earth." 

Noah lived to be 950 when he died. 

Street Lights and Pavement

In less than a month, my wife Shelby, my daughter Harley, and I will be traveling to the most beautiful place on earth (at least on my earth) - Big Bend National Park. This will be my fifth time to go, and I can't wait. There's something about being around massive boulders and arid desert that just recharges my internal battery and refocuses my mind.

But, knowing that my wife has never been there and this will be my daughter's first camping and hiking trip, I know that we'll have to do some hiking here to prepare ourselves. We'll have to eat differently and workout. Why? Because there's some intense hiking out in Big Bend. And if we don't prepare ourselves, we're gonna find it extra difficult to persevere on some of these trails. 

And so, on Sunday, we took our first mini hike. I looked on Google maps to see what creeks were near our apartment, and found one that was within walking distance. So, we loaded our backpacks, filled the water bottles, put on our shoes to break them in, grabbed some trail food, and headed out. If anything, it would give us a tiny feel of hiking even though we were only going for a few hours. 

The first segment of the hike dealt with paved roads, fast cars, and street lights. In order to get to where we were going, we had to walk through what represented the daily monotony, the daily grind. There wasn't really anything noticeably different than if we were driving. It was cars, streetlights, and paved roads. About fifteen minutes into our hike, we came up to the creek we were going to follow, and it required us to get off the paved road and into the tall grass. So we descended down the grassy slope, off the overpass, and went toward the water. 

Once we did that, the scenery obviously changed. There were two completely different worlds running parallel to each other, and the world we were walking into had things like egrets, nutria rats, turtles, storks, and wild onions that you could pick from the ground and eat while you were hiking. The other part of this world that really caught me off guard was, I never knew how many bridges there actually were until I started walking under them. And under every bridge was a homeless person's camp. There was a whole network of bridges turned shelters, and I had no clue before I came on this hike. As we walked under the bridges, I felt like we were walking through people's living rooms and invading their privacy. So, in the friendliest way I could, I waved and smiled and tried using my body language to show them that I wasn't there to cause trouble but just passing through. 

There are two things that I grabbed from this experience, and the first was the art of saying yes. 

If we hadn't said yes to going on this short hike, we wouldn't have seen the spectacular world that lay just beneath the surface of the world of - we'll call it common sense. We would've stuck with what was familiar, routine, and somewhat comforting (as comforting as driving and dealing with other drivers can be). I wouldn't have had the opportunity to run after the nutria rat as if it were some undiscovered species of water monster. We wouldn't have seen the amount of effort that went into these homeless peoples' shelters. We wouldn't have seen the egrets, which led to our personal stories about egrets. We wouldn't have eaten the toasted coconut marshmallows or kicked the blue ball or saw the yellow rope or ate the graham crackers or gotten the blisters or felt the sunlight or ate the wild onions or saw the hawk's nest or seen how many turtles were in the creek or seen the woman picking up coins. 

We would have just . . . driven . . . on.

Through the street lights.

Through the traffic.

Focused on the pavement with yellow lines. 

Which brings me to my first point - saying yes often lets us see the spectacular world that exists just beneath the surface of the daily monotony. 

Wanna break out of the world of common sense and daily grind? Say yes.
Wanna break into a world that will blow your mind (or at least give you a different take on the world)? Say yes. 

And here's my second point. 

More often than not, we humans have this tendency to pray way too much, and do way too little. 

My friend Ryan who I've known since high school, is having his life turned upside down by alcohol. I don't even know if he knows it. I didn't when I was drinking. 

For the last few weeks, ever since his dad paid me a visit, I've been asking God to help find a solution. Every morning, when I remember, I ask God to help him find a solution. 

Isn't that what we do when we pray? We don't have a solution so we ask God to make a way to help her get better or help him get that job or help them get that home.

Which is all good. I have no qualms with any of that. 

But I wonder how many times we're part of the solution that we're seeking from God? 

The second thing I grabbed from our little hiking trip was this - having an attitude of yes is the glue that makes prayer work. It's our yes matched with God's yes. It's our will fused with God's will. 

How many times do we pray for others but have an attitude of no? How many times do we pray and have no motivation to play any sort of role in the solution? How many times do we not realize that if we're to pray, then we have to be ready to show up for the people we're praying for?

And so, a few weeks into my praying for my friend, he sent me a Facebook message. That was it. Just a hello . . . just like the creek was just a creek, and the bridge was just a bridge.

That was yesterday. Today is the day of saying yes to my long-time friend, rather than ignoring another text message, phone call, or email. Because, I want to be the kind of person that wants to see the fascinating world that lies just beneath the surface.  I want to be the kind of person that doesn't settle for the common sense world of street lights and pavement.

Jesus called it the kingdom of God.
Others call it the realm of the divine.
Ultimate Reality.

So, to sum this all up . . . 

Saying yes to things or people or places we'd normally say no to breaks us out of the world of common sense and monotony. It breaks us into the fascinating kingdom of God.

Having an attitude of yes during prayer places ourselves in a posture of being part of God's solution and not isolating ourselves from it.

Now go out and say yes today like your life depends on it, because, it kinda does.

Barge - Part 3

Imagine you're about to go to war. It's 2450 BC. You've been summoned by the tribe leader, and you have two months to prepare for a battle you don't know that you'll come back from. The only way you know how to soothe your family is to explain to them why tribes go to battle, and why people like you are used in those battles. You explain to them through the use of metaphor, the power drive that causes tribes to think they are favored by the gods over all the other tribes. And you tell them there's not anything you can do about it, for to resist and withdraw would surely mean death and what good would it be for the family if you were put to the sword? What the Noah story does is give the family hope that they will be spared from the evils and catastrophe that lie ahead. But deep in your bones, you know this isn't how it's supposed to be. You aren't supposed to be fighting. Tribes aren't supposed to be feuding over whose god is bigger. You feel like a pawn in a huge game of thrones, and you have no control over the outcome. All you can do is trust the still, small, voice inside that tells you, "Trust in me. I will watch over you. Everything will be okay. Just trust in me." 

"And the story continues: "The Great Power didn't forget about Noah and his family and all the animals that were aboard the barge. And the Great Power sent a massive wind over the whole earth, causing the water to stop filling up. The reservoirs underground stopped leaking water, and the sky stopped pouring buckets of water; and the water slowly drained from the earth, and by the 150th day the water started evaporating. On July 17th, Noah looked out the window of the barge and saw that the barge was nestled on top of the Ararat Mountain range. The water kept dissipating until October 1st, and Noah noticed the tops of other, much shorter mountains starting to come into view. 

And by the second week of November, Noah opened the window to the barge. He let out a raven, but the raven never came back. It flew and flew and flew until the water dried up from the face of the earth. So Noah never got any evidence from the raven that it was safe to offload. Then, he sent out a dove, and the dove couldn't find any trees to fly to. So, the dove came back to the barge and that told Noah that it wasn't time to get off the ship yet. Noah waited seven more days and in the third week of November, he tried the dove experiment again. This time, the dove came back with a fresh olive leaf in her beak. This told Noah that it was finally safe to unload the barge. But, just to be safe, Noah waited another seven days, and in the last week of November he sent the dove back out. This time, the dove found a nesting place, so Noah knew it was definitely safe to get off the ship. 

On January 1st, in Noah's 601st year of life, the water that once covered the earth was all dried up. It was as if it never happened, and Noah opened the door of the barge and saw dry land for the first time in a very long time. 

And the Great Power told Noah, "Take your family and get off the barge. Get all the animals out so they can repopulate the earth."

Noah did as he was instructed, and every animal went out just as they had come in. 

Then Noah did what we still do today when we worship. He built an altar to the Great Power, and took one of every clean animal that went aboard the barge, and sacrificed them on the altar. 

The Great Power smelled the soothing aroma, and said, "I won't allow a flood like this to ever happen again. The evil of the human heart is inevitable, and there's nothing I'm going to do to stop it. Man will have to learn on his own how to overcome his wicked ways. And, I will never again allow every living thing to be destroyed."

And Noah sang this song in celebration: "While the earth is still standing, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night, Will not stop their cycles of life."

Barge - Part 2

And so, the story continues. The Great Power tells Noah to take his family and board the barge, because Noah is the only righteous person on the earth. Can you hear the favoritism seeping through the story of whatever tribe first started telling it? And the Great Power tells Noah to take aboard seven pairs of every animal that was considered clean - like lambs, bulls, and oxen. Each pair had to consist of a male and female because how else was the earth going to repopulate after the Great Power wiped everything off the face of the planet? Noah was also instructed to take seven pairs of every unclean animal, like snakes, pigs, and horses, each pair consisting of male and female. And he did the same with all the birds. Then the Great Power told Noah that after one week, it was gonna rain for forty days and forty nights, essentially blotting out every life form from the face of the earth. Noah did everything he was instructed. He was this tribe's hero, and there's two things I want you to know. Noah represents the tribe leader, and his family represents the leader's tribe. Whoever came up with this story thought their tribe was the only righteous tribe on the planet. 

The story continues and says that Noah was six hundred years old when the floods started coming. When Noah and his family saw this, they all entered the barge as fast as they could. And, having the same survival instinct as the humans, the animals ran aboard that barge as fast as they could as well. On February 17th, when Noah was 600, the underground water reservoirs burst open and water shot from the ground into the heavens. At the same time, the sky began dropping buckets of rain. This continued for forty days and nights just like the Great Power said it would.

The day that the ground shot water was the day that Noah and his family were spared, along with all the living creatures. The ark was considered the breath of life - the vehicle which the Great Power would use to save the "good tribe." After everyone and everything was aboard, the Great Power closed the door, putting the final stamp of approval on the work that the righteous Noah had done. 

And over the next forty days, the water rose. The ark finally lifted off the ground when the water reached the top of the window, and the people could see that the water was increasing exponentially. Eventually, all the mountains were covered. Everything died, and they had a window to watch it all happen. Everything that used nostrils as the vehicle to salvation died off. The ark had replaced the nostrils as the breath of life during those forty days. So, this tribe's Great Power preserved them but killed off all their enemies, using water as the means of execution for 150 days.

This tribe was special, favored, and superior to the rest of the tribes. The gods were with them but not with anyone else. No one and nothing deserved to live, because they weren't righteous like said tribe. 

Do you see the kind of prideful isolation that started happening within and without the first civilizations? I imagine that there were some great philosophers trying to figure out how it ended up that way. And the best they could do was come up with stories that helped explain why humanity was becoming so full of judgment and condemnation. Blame it on the fall of Adam and Eve because it makes sense. Their sins carried on throughout the generations, and if you were considered to be a direct ancestor of Adam, you had this special divine preservation to look forward to. You were one of a kind, and the gods favored you above any other type of human or animal. 

And that's how it was back then. Although it was ugly and messy, people were advancing in thought and beliefs. They would have to go through the fire before they got the relief they needed, but they kept moving, kept progressing ever so slowly. 

Today, our thoughts have advanced way past the mindset of self-preservation, even though you're seeing it play out right before your eyes. Just remember, that the Great Power that's got us here, brings rain on the just and the unjust. Our Great Power wants to preserve all of humanity, not just a few. So, in the upcoming days, weeks, months, and years, as you look upon the wars and feuds that are gonna happen, remember that our Great Power doesn't condone it or support it, but wants us to be different. Our Great Power wants us to seek way of peace, not violence; love, not hate; humility, not pride; and forgiveness, not resentment

Barge

Imagine it's 2,500 BC. You've got a family, within a tribe, within a country, within a continent. The more your worldview expands, the more you realize how deep and how wide the Great Power goes. But unfortunately, you also start noticing something else. The beauty of the vastness of the Great Power is starting to get overshadowed by the pride and judgment of different feuding tribes. Tribes are starting to claim that they have a monopoly on worship, and that anybody outside of their tribe is wrong. Instead of looking at the world through the lens of how great and mysterious and beautiful and profound this Great Power is, they start looking at how different everybody outside of their tribe is. In an attempt to try to explain this to your kids as they grow and start witnessing the same things you're witnessing, a story similar to the following would have been familiar to you. It would have been passed down from generation to generation, reminding each of how important it was to look at the world through the lens of beauty and not judgment . . .

"Now the tribe that came up with this story had a lot of contempt towards sex. Maybe they worshiped a god that they believed denounced sex, or denounced the female race, but there was obviously some kind of disdain there. According to the sources of this narrative, Adam's family line started multiplying real quick within a few hundred centuries. Sons and daughters were popping up everywhere, and it seemed that as soon as a boy was born, he'd be on his way looking for the woman he was gonna hook up with. Of course, this whole concept of sex wasn't even that old, so there was a freshness about it, a curiosity, a fascination. And men and women began experimenting with this centuries old concept to figure out what it could do for them.

And the tribe leader who first started telling this story felt like the Great Power was telling him that the Great Spirit wouldn't have a part in the sexual conduct between men and women. And so sex was looked at as not a gift from the heavens, but a curse of the earth - or, a curse dating back to Adam. And there was also a gender based stereotype that prevailed at the time. Men were considered "sons of the Great Power" and women were considered "sons of men." Women were inferior to men, and that's how these early tribes saw things. 

And so, those early tribes saw the sexual conduct happening around them, and they felt like the Great Power condemned all of it. They believed the Great Power thought the attraction between male and female was wicked, and that it stemmed from the evil desires of man's heart. They believed that the Great Power regretted ever establishing the evolutional order that led to the human being, and that the Great Power's heart was grieved over this.

At some point, the tribe - paying close attention to the weather patterns and the lights in the night sky - realized that something catastrophic was about to happen. And to them, this was because the Great Power was about to strike humankind with a wrathful vengeance for its sexual deviance. They felt like the Great Power was going to wipe out everything, and so they injected a character into the script named Noah. Noah represented perfection. He was divine and human at the same time.

And according to the tribe that originally circulated this story, these are the records of the generations of Noah. They believed Noah was perfect - no mistakes, no wrongdoings, just pure as the driven snow. But the real bias here was, Noah believed in the same Great Power that this tribe believed in. If you were outside of the tribe, you were exotic and you worshiped foreign idols. But if you were in the tribe, that was a different story. And Noah was definitely in the tribe. Noah became the father of three sons as mentioned before: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 

According to this tribe, the earth (outside of their tribe) was corrupt. People were wicked. People were violent. Their Great Power looked at humanity with scolding eyes and a raised fist. They were the good guys, and the people outside were the bad guys. To them, anyone outside of their clan had corrupted their purposes on the earth."

And so, in the story they created, the Great Power told this Noah that the end of humanity was coming. The Great Power tells Noah that since humanity (outside of the tribe of course) has filled the earth with violence, the earth is going to react with violence. And according to the story, the Great Power tells Noah to build a massive barge out of gopher wood. It'll have tons of rooms and Noah was to cover it with a tar-like substance called pitch. And Noah was given specific instructions on how to put this boat together: "Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Make a window for the barge that stops 1.5 feet from the ceiling. Create a door for the side of the boat that opens long and wide. And make the boat have three decks." And in the story, the Great Power tells Noah that the earth is going to fill up with water like a bowl. Everything that has life is gonna die. But, being the hero that he is, Noah and the Great Power make a covenant together that his family will be preserved. They'll be the only ones allowed to go on the boat. And the Great Power tells Noah to gather two of every kind of living thing that's on the earth, every bird that's in the sky,  and to herd them over to the boat. And the Great Power also tells him to gather as much food as he can find so that he can preserve the wild edibles of the land.

The tribe that circulated this story just knew that the Great Power was going to blot out all the wicked people around them, and so they created the first apocalyptic fiction ever told. And this story spread like wildfire. While it was obviously fiction, there was a principle behind it that people were grabbing onto: if you don't act and behave and believe and worship as we do, our Great Power's gonna smack you down. Just wait and see."

Eulogy

Imagine it's 2500 B.C. The whole tribe has gathered to celebrate the life of your great-grandfather, who was also the beloved leader of the tribe for many years. As a way of celebrating, you've been chosen to give a eulogy. What is a eulogy? It's a chronological record of the uniqueness of the one who has passed - what made that person stand out from the rest. It's a history, a chronicle of where the person came from and what made them so great. And embedded in the storyline of this tribe is the belief that spurring on the evolution of mankind was a Great Power that not only set the universe in motion, but took care of much smaller things - namely, human beings.

This is Adam's family tree:

Many, many years ago, when the Great Power established the natural processes that led to the evolution of mankind, the first human being took a step on land. And that human being, just like the living creatures before him, had qualities that showed glimpses of the creative work of the Great Power. And not long after the first human walked the earth, a different kind of human evolved - what we call a female. And they were both wired with qualities of the divine. The first man was named Adam, the first woman Eve.

Back then, the earth was much safer than it is today. You didn't have warring factions looking to gain ground all the time at the expense of other tribes. You didn't have plagues wiping whole tribes off the face of the earth. And so, people lived much longer. Adam lived to be 130, and had a son named Seth. Seth displayed those same qualities of the divine that Adam did, and that was to be the case with all of Adam's children - sons and daughters. After Adam and Eve had Seth, Adam lived another 800 years, totaling 930! Unfortunately, no one knows how long the first woman lived because whoever decided to start recording this stuff was obviously a male.

Seth lived 105 years, married, and they had a son named Enosh. Then Seth lived another 807 years and along the way had many other sons and daughters. In all, Seth lived 912 years.

By the age of 90, Enosh and his wife had a kid named Kenan. Then Enosh lived another 815 years and had many other sons and daughters. In all, Enosh lived 905 years.

By the age of 70, Kenan and his wife had a kid named Mahalalel. Then Kenan lived another 840 years and had many other sons and daughters. In all, Kenan lived 910 years.

By the age of 65, Mahalalel and his wife had a kid named Jared. Then Mahalalel lived another 830 years and had many other sons and daughters. In all, Mahalalel lived 895 years.

By the age of 162, Jared and his wife had a kid named Enoch. Then Jared lived another 800 years and had many other sons and daughters. In all, Jared lived 962 years.

By the age of 65, Enoch and his wife had a kid named Methuselah. Legend has it that Enoch was the first man since Adam to communicate with the Great Power, and he did that for 300 years after he had Methuselah. Him and his wife also had many other sons and daughters. In all, Enoch lived 365 years, and story has it that he didn't live as long as the generations before because the Great Power decided to take him from the earth and use him to do things that only the Great Power could do.

By the age of 187, Mehuselah and his wife had a kid named Lamech. Then Methuselah lived another 782 years and had many other sons and daughters. In all, Methuselah lived 969 years.

By the age of 182, Lamech and his wife had a kid named Noah. And Lamech decided to bless Noah with the following words: "You will give your people rest from their work and from the bone-breaking labor it takes to cultivate this cursed ground." Then Lamech lived another 595 years and had many other sons and daughters. In all Lamech lived 777 years.

By the age of 500, Noah and his wife had three sons - Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Iron

Imagine it's 2600 BC. You're sitting in your hut, teaching your two boys how to make tools to sharpen arrows, work the garden, and hunt for food. You also realize that it's a perfect time to have the talk. That's right, the birds and the bees. What kind of story would you have to come up with to combine such important topics as survival and sex, the two most basic human instincts? Luckily, you don't have to come up with a new story, because stories like the following have been floating around for generations, from tribe to tribe, and you're just gonna continue telling the ever-evolving narrative that's made it's way into your family, your tribe, and your culture. And it goes something like this . . .

Now even though the man and the woman were all caught up in their differences, they discovered there was this energy they couldn't explain that drew them together. They started exploring each others' bodies. And surprisingly, they found that they each had parts that fit with the others'. When this energy was at its maximum, they were swept into a state they couldn't control but nonetheless loved. And as they learned more and more about this energy, they learned that they could produce replicas of themselves, just like they'd seen some of the animals do. And so, after a few years of exploring each other, being carried away by this profound energy, and experiencing the greatest pleasures they'd ever known, the woman's belly started getting big - real big. In fact, Adam thought something really bad was going on, but Eve assured him this wasn't so. She sensed that something special was going on inside of her. She knew it.

And about nine months later, Eve was in excruciating pain, and sounds were coming out of her that Adam had never heard before. Adam, being new at this obviously, did everything he could to calm her down and make the pain lessen, but nothing worked. Neither of them really knew what this was leading to, but Eve knew deep in her bones that it was something good. And, after about twelve hours of screaming and crying and pushing and yelling at Adam, a tiny living organism slid out of her opening - the same opening that Adam realized he had a part for the few years previously.

It turned out the tiny living organism had hair like Adam, and had a smaller version of the same part that Adam had. And Eve named the tiny Adam Cain. 

And Eve told Adam, "The Great Power has given me a tiny version of you."

She repeated this same process and created another tiny being. She named this one Abel.

After years and years of working with his mom and dad, Abel found he was really good at tending to the flocks of cattle that otherwise would wander around aimlessly with no purpose. Cain found he was really good at tilling the ground just like his dad. 

Soon after Eve had her two boys, she decided it'd be good to start giving back to the Great Power - an act of gratitude for the creative life force she'd been given. And so, every year her and Adam would gather their best fruits from the ground they cultivated and dedicate them to the Great Power. They taught their two boys to do the same.

One year, just as usual, Cain brought some of his fruit to dedicate to the Great Power. Abel brought the best calves he could find out of the flock, butchered them, and brought the fattiest pieces of brisket you'd ever tasted. When Cain saw how much thought Abel had put into his gift to the Great Power, he felt insignificant. He felt like the Great Power was going to like Abe's offering more.

And so Cain got really angry and jealous towards his brother. The first competition in the history of humanity started right there. 

And the Great Power asked Cain, "Why are you so angry, and why are you walking around with your head down? You did something good, so why aren't you happy about it? If you keep beating yourself up like that, you're gonna make life miserable for yourself."

But the words didn't help Cain. He had made his decision that he wasn't as good as his brother. And so, one day, Cain slipped off into the field where Abel was tending to his cattle, and cut his throat.

And the Great Power asked Cain, "Where's your brother?"

Cain replied, "I don't know. I'm not his babysitter."

The Great Power responded, "What in the world have you done? I see the stain of blood on the ground where Abel takes care of the cattle. Because of this, you've brought curses upon yourself. All life is sacred, and all living things have creative energy inside them that drives them to create more life. Because of what you've done, the ground will turn against you and will not let you reap its benefits any longer. As a result, you're gonna have to wander around looking for something to eat."

Cain said, "Great Power, this punishment is too much! When the other tribes find out what I've done, they'll kill me for sure, on top of this curse that the ground has put on me!"

And the Great Power said, "Whoever takes your life will experience the same curse you've experienced yourself, except theirs will be seven times as bad."

After they had this conversation, Cain took a stone and carved a snake into his chest. This way, he would be marked for the rest of his life as cursed, and no one would try to take his life, for they would be cursed as well.

Cain moved out to the land of Nod which was east of Eden.

When Cain found a woman out there, they explored each others' bodies just like Adam and Eve had. And after a year or so, she had a boy and named him Enoch. And Cain started building a tribe and named the tribe Enoch after his son. 

And eventually Enoch found a wife and they had Irad.

Irad found a wife and they had Mehujael.

Mehujael found a wife and they had Methushael.

Methushael found a wife and they had Lamech.

Now Lamech found the need to have two wives. One of the wives was named Adah, and the other was named Zillah. Adah ended up giving birth to a son named Jabal. Jabal became very good at building villages and herding livestock. Adah also gave birth to a son named Jubal. He became very good with music and teaching others to play instruments - especially the lyre. And for Zillah, she gave birth to a boy named Tubal-Cain. He became very good with metalworking and creating tools and weapons. Zillah also had a girl named Naamah. 

One day, after all the kids were older, Lamech said to his wives, "I have something to confess. A long time ago, I killed a man for hurting me. If my great grandfather Cain's enemies were cursed seven times, then my enemies will be cursed seventy-seven times for trying to kill me."

Adam and Eve ended up having another kid, and this one was named Seth. Eve told Adam, "The Great Power has given me another boy to replace Abel."

Seth found himself a wife, and they had a boy named Enosh.

Around this time, humans started figuring out that they could talk to the Great Power on their own, and they started doing just that.

Fruit

Imagine you're walking around the woods. It's 3,000 BC, and earlier in the day your kid did something he wasn't supposed to do. He left the cave without telling you, even though you had told him over and over not to do that. In order to get your point across, you would've told a story similar to this one, because it's what your dad did for you and what his dad did for him:

Out of all the beasts of the field that the Great Power created, the snake was the most sly. It could slither around secretly without revealing itself, and strike when one least expected it. And here's a story that your great, great, grandfather told about the snake:

'After many years passed and the first man and woman were working in the garden, the snake showed up to the woman and told her, "Has the Great Power told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?" 

And even though the woman hadn't ever talked to the Great Power before, she answered, "We can eat the fruit off of any of the trees in the garden except from the one in the middle. The Great Power told us it was poisonous and we'd die if we ate it or even touched it."

And the snake said to the woman, "Do you really believe that? I bet that man of yours is trying to keep something from you. He doesn't want you to gain more knowledge than himself, so he's come up with a story 'from the Great Power' to keep you away from it. But the truth is, he's been eating off of that tree for days now."

The woman believed the snake. I mean, who wouldn't under the circumstances? When the only person you trust is said to be doing something behind your back, it makes you question things a little bit. So, the woman's truth was tweaked to where the saw the tree in the middle of the garden as a good thing. She saw the fruit as a good thing. She became enamored by this tree and its fruit, and couldn't stop thinking about it. All day and all night for weeks, she couldn't sleep without dreaming about this tree. She wanted the wisdom that came from the fruit of the tree.

Finally, after twisting and turning many sleepless nights and after having an inward battle many days, she secretly took one of the fruits from the tree. Then she ate some of it. Immediately, she felt a feeling she'd never felt before. She felt an emotion stirring up within her, and it had to do with what the snake had told her earlier about the man. "Why would he have kept this secret from me? What's he trying to do?" She decided to never mention her conversation with the snake to the man, and a couple days later took some of the fruit to him. 

As they ate the fruit together, they felt like they're eyes were opening to a realm they never knew existed. Over a few weeks, they started picking up on subtle differences between themselves. Physically, they started noticing flaws in each other. In their conversations, they started trying to prove the other wrong. They started competing against each other in the garden, and measuring each other up. They noticed that their bodies were different from each other, and different had never been a concept in their language up to this point. So, they went out into the garden to find firm plants that would make good coverings for their differences. 

One morning, as they were walking in awkward silence, they heard the Great Power moving through the trees. The man and woman were very uncomfortable, for they had not learned how to deal with the feelings they were having. They didn't want the Great Power to find them at such an uncomfortable and awkward moment of vulnerability, so they ran behind some groves of bushes. 

The Great Power called out from somewhere, "Where are you Adam?"

And the man, with his back against one of the trees, answered, "I heard something moving through the trees while we were walking, and I got scared. We've been having some issues and I didn't feel like I was ready to talk to you. So I ran and hid."

And the Great Power said, "Where'd you get this idea of 'issues?' You didn't eat the fruit from the tree in the middle did you?"

And the man told the Great Power, "Yes and no. I had no choice. The woman that you thought I needed brought me lunch one day just like every other day, and said nothing about where it came from. So, I ate it just like any other day."

The Great Power said to the woman, "Is this true?"

And the woman said, "Yes and no. The snake lied to me, and I ate the fruit from the tree in the middle."

The Great Power couldn't believe it. Everything was going just as planned until the snake screwed it all up. 

So the Great Power said to the snake, "Because you lied to this woman, this man, and me, you will be the most cursed animal that ever lives. You'll be cursed more than the cattle that drudge around in the dust all day, rechewing their own undigested food! You'll be cursed more than any beast of the field! You'll be confined to slithering around on your belly forever, never evolving into a walking being, never evolving into anything. Dust will cover you and remind you of the filth that you've created here in this garden. You and the woman will never get along. You'll and the man will hurt each other time and time again."

And the Great Power told the woman, "For now on, when you have babies, it's gonna be extremely painful. The pain is going to keep you from ever loving your children they way you use to, and you'll focus more on your husband than your kids, even though he's going to try to rule you with an iron fist."

Then he told the man, "You've gone against the directions I gave you and the leanings of your heart. Therefore, I'm cursing the ground that you've been working on. You will work the ground and have a lot of trouble gettting stuff to grow. You'll do this the rest of your life. You'll get more weeds than crops, and will have trouble getting enough food to keep you alive. It'll be nearly impossible to grow the grains you'll use to make bread, and you'll do all these things until you return to the same cursed ground."

After much time had passed, the man called the woman Eve which means mother of all the living. For the first time ever, the man and woman killed for clothing. No longer were the plants and fruits enough, but they wanted and needed more. So they used animal skin to cover their differences.

Then the Great Power told the Great Spirit, "They're trying really hard to become like us, but they have no idea how mortal they are. They're desire for power is sure to grow by leaps and bounds, so we need to protect that tree of life from them. We need to protect the little sacredness there is left in the garden from Adam's hunger for power."

So, the Great Power told Adam he had to leave and he couldn't come back. And at the entrance of the garden, the Great Power placed an impenetrable fortress that kept anyone in the future from accessing the tree of life.

Partners

Imagine sitting around a fire with your tribe. It's night time, and the sky is dotted with more stars than you've ever seen. The shadows of the fire dance around you and reveal nature's gems, hidden if not for the flames. You've just finished eating, and just like every other night, the chief of the tribe tells a story that sounds something like this . . .

"Over billions and billions of years, the earth you walk on and the sky you look upon, and all the lights you see at night, were created by the Great Power. And after everything was set in order to reproduce itself, the Great Power decided to rest. Then the Great Power blessed the time of rest and made it sacred because it was time to take a break from creating. 

At some point in the processes of the universe coming to be, there weren't any shrubs to pick berries from. There weren't any plants to pick fruit from. And the Great Power hadn't yet established the processes that would bring rain to the land. Plus, there was no man available to till the ground once it did rain. However, back then there was a mist that would spray out from cracks in the ground and water the surface of the ground. And out of this mixture of water and dust, the Great Power set the processes in motion that would lead to the first living organism - the human being. And after millions of years, a garden grew out of the East in a place called Eden, and this is where the first man found his home. This place called Eden was the springboard for life, and this life would spread out over billions of years to fill the earth. By the time man got to the garden, there were beautiful trees, and they were fruit-bearing. Our ancestors say that there were two trees that stood out from all the others. One was called the tree of life, and the other was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Over time, the mist that sprayed out of the dry earth evolved into a river, and one of these rivers flowed out of Eden. It watered all the plants and trees, and over time it divided into four different rivers. The name of the first river that split off from the river of Eden was Pishon. It watered all the land of Havilah. This is where our ancestors first found gold, and the gold of that land was very good. Also, the bdellium and the onyx stones were first found there by our ancestors. The name of the second river was Gihon. It watered the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris, and it waters the land of Assyria. The name of the fourth river is Euphrates. 

Once man was evolved by the processes the Great Power put into order, he took care of the garden. He nurtured the plants, trimmed down the trees, and made sure everything had life to the fullest. And one day, the Great Power told the man, "Eat from any plant in the garden you'd like, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Its fruit looks like all the other fruit, but it's not good for you. It's poisonous." 

Then the Great Power told the Great Spirit, "Since we're not alone, it's not good for the man to be alone. Make him a helper who'll tend the garden with him." And so the Great Spirit put into motion the processes that - after many, many years - would lead to the first female being. But throughout the natural processes that would lead to the man's first helper, nature ruled out several options. The first option was a beast of the field. The man and the beast worked together and accomplished many things, but the man felt that something was missing. The second option was the bird of the sky. The man and the bird worked together and accomplished many amazing things, but the man felt that something was missing. As they worked together, the man came up with names for them so he could communicate in a meaningful way. He worked with many different types of animals and accomplished many different things, but still felt deep in his heart that there was something missing. And our ancestors tell us that the Great Power caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. Then, the Great Power cut open the man's side, took out one of his ribs, and then used the powers of healing to close up the wound.

It's been told that the Great Power used the man's rib to form the first woman, and the Great Power brought the woman to the man.

After working together in the garden for awhile, the man realized that the feeling he had before about something being missing wasn't there anymore. And so he said to woman, "Your bones are just like mine, and your flesh is like mine also. Your name will be woman for now on because you're just like me and my heart doesn't feel like it's missing something anymore." 

Over time, the man and woman perfected their ability to work and play together. They were partners, and developed their own rhythm as they helped cultivate the garden. And nothing could stand in their way as they helped spread life around Eden.

Neighbor

"Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” John 14:21 NIV

I'm wary of what it means for Jesus to reveal himself to me. How does a person who's not physically present reveal him or herself to another? If we get into that, we'd have to get into some pretty mystical stuff, and I'm in a season of life where the mystical is just not my cup of tea. I'm headed after logic, and none of this stuff makes sense.

But, is love logical? Here's the statement I find in today's passage:

Love neighbor as self = Love Jesus = Loved by God = Loved by Jesus = Experiencing Jesus

None of the statements in today's passage are logical. They're all spiritual. And so, to love my neighbor is, in essence, to experience Jesus, or, as the passage says, to have Jesus show himself to the one who's doing the neighbor loving.

The first thing I have to do in order to test this passage is to suspend all logical thinking. Just as all logic is thrown out the window when one tries to explain the experience of love, the same must happen when trying to figure out what it means to experience Jesus. But, there's another angle to look at this as well. In the original context, Jesus was present and he was speaking to real people in a real place at a real time. So, if I imagine I was one of the bystanders listening in on this sermonette, does it place the statements on a logical level?

Lets see:

I'm standing on a street corner in Galilee, trying to catch a morning time sermon. There's quite a crowd around me. I'm Jewish, and I'm about to go to work. I've heard quite a few of his sermons before, so I know the context that Jesus is coming from. His version of the commandments is to do two things: love God and love people. Evidently, those two things are a summary of all the laws the Torah (that I'm trying to unlearn) prescribes. As I'm listening, I catch the following: “Whoever has my commands . . .” I know that anytime I hear Jesus talking about commands, he's talking about what he calls the two greatest commandments – to love God with all of heart, mind, and strength, and to love neighbor as oneself. And then he says, “ . . . and keeps them.” So, I would probably be measuring myself up against the others in the audience, most likely some pretty well-known friends in the audience. I'd probably be running through the past few days to see how well or unwell I've held these two commandments. And then he says that the one who keeps them is “the one who loves me.” What's so special about loving a good Rabbi? How arrogant of him to puff himself up like that, telling a whole audience that loving him. I'd be kind of freaked out about this statement, because he's getting awfully close to making this about himself. I'd be debating whether I should leave or not. But, the more I think about it, the more I realize he's just inserting himself into the passage. He's being the “neighbor”, or, the recipient of said love. I realize he's inviting the audience into this mysterious action of love, and connecting it to something. So naturally, if any of us in the audience are practicing the “two greatest commandments,” then we'll be sure to love Jesus, since he is our neighbor. After all, we've known him since he was a baby. This is a small town you know. But he does bring up some points that ruffle the feathers of the higher religious leaders around here. They don't like it very much when he downplays the Torah and wraps it up in one sentence. In fact, I just saw a couple Pharisees walk away sneering. They may be forming a coalition against Jesus because he's definitely stirring up a hornet's nest of controversy.

He goes on to say, “And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father . . .” Now this is interesting. For my whole life, the only things that have been worthy of affection from the Father are visiting temple, tithing to the temple, making my sin and peace offerings, praying, and fasting. Is he putting “loving one's neighbor” on the same plane as these items? Now that's a concept I've not heard before, and it brings with it a relief. I probably start thinking of how this may change everything. And, I probably still question Jesus's right to even declare these things. Where does he get these notions? Did he make them up? Did he get a special message from the Father? Regardless, even the thought of not having to do these rote, monotonous disciplines sounds wonderful. I need a change.

He concludes the passage with, “ . . . and I too will love them and show myself to them.” This makes sense to me. He's just saying the obvious. When I love my neighbor, my neighbor loves me back and opens himself up to me.

The breakthrough concept in all of this is, we can put loving each other on the same plane as doing all these things that we've been doing in the hopes of receiving the Father's love. Better yet, we can replace all these things we've been doing (prayer, fasting, temple, sacrifices, offerings, etc.) with loving our neighbors, and experience the Father's love.

Now I know why those Pharisees scoffed earlier. This message isn't Pharisee-friendly, but an invitation to anybody who has the ability to love. Who can't love? Who is foreign to the concept of love? Jesus has just made the point-blank declaration that anyone and everyone has the ability to do what previously only the Jew could do. This is for sure gonna attract some Gentiles. I don't know how I feel about standing in an audience with Gentiles, listening to the same message. If anything, this is a new school of thought to me, and I'm very interested in coming back tomorrow to hear what else he has to say.

Why It Seems Impossibly Hard to Experience God

What tangible evidence is there of God or Jesus outside of the evidence that's found in my own desires to do something constructive in this world?

To be a great writer.
To be a great musician.
To seek justice for victims of sex trafficking.
To be available when someone around me is in need.
To be ready to serve when the homeless man is knocking on the car window.
To give a massage to my wife.
To play with my daughter.
To be a friend among friends, a worker among workers.

Without the constant fanning of the flames of my heart's deepest desires, I have no evidence. It all becomes this fantasy, this abstract cartoon flickering in my head. I can read, listen to lectures, watch inspiring documentaries, go to church, pray, and do so many other things to try and capture just a glimpse of this God I can't see, but it's all futile if I'm not tapping into those desires of my heart and pressing into them courageously.

The things that scare me the most are the things that I'm good at or at least passionate about. To do those things would require taking a leap of faith and not knowing what tomorrow may hold. Yet, they're the only tangible evidence I have of a Higher Being. Here's why.

By default, human beings take the road that's the easiest. The least amount of pain, discomfort, and hardship. And so, when it comes to time, our most valuable resource, we use it in a way that promises us the least resistance. It's part of our nature.

Just imagine, if you're living in ancient times. You're survival instincts are kicked on every second, and you know that you've gotta get out there and hunt, find supplies for the shelter, and get everything you need for the day before it gets dark. You know that once it gets dark, the predators start feeding. If you don't use your time wisely, you may just turn into a snack for a hungry lion. So, time is sacred and you have to make every second count so you can get home to the family before dark. 

So, we're wired to take the path of least resistance because it's an instinct for survival. 

Yet, hasn't this concept evolved at all?

I'm not living in a cave, and lions aren't waiting to eat me when the lights go off. I don't have to hunt for my food. I don't have to collect wood for the fire. 

In an age where everything is right at my fingertips, why am I still worried about taking a path that has resistance?

I'm convinced that it's only in taking the paths that my heart's deepest desires lead to, that I find the most resistance. I compromise adventure for monotony. I trade in joy for discontentment. I trade trust-in-God for trust-in-financial security. 

Just the notion that resistance is possibly on the horizon will keep me dead in my tracks for months and even years, settling for everything less than what my heart is calling me to do. 

So, what does it look like to trust God? It looks like taking any path that has resistance, and for me, the only paths that have resistance are the ones that collaborate with my deepest passions. It seems that God placed certain desires in my heart, knowing that if I chose to follow them, I'd have to get out of my comfort zone. And, when I'm out of my comfort zone, I have no one to turn to but God. 

Make sense?

The good thing about life is, I can hit the reset button any time I wish. I can start over. Or, I can tweak a few things. 

I've been having a real hard time with Jesus. My thoughts on the matter used to come so naturally and smoothly. It's hard to know what's true and what's false, what's real and what's not. But I imagine it's not making it any easier to discover the true meaning of following this Jesus if I'm not facing any resistance on the paths I'm on. 

Come to me, all who are weary.

Am I weary? Yes. I have been for quite some time.
Am I coming to Jesus? No. I've decided I don't even know what that means anymore.

How do you "come to Jesus" when Jesus doesn't have a cell phone or a Facebook account? How do you come to Jesus when you can't go to his house and have dinner? 

I guess prayer takes care of all that? Will I find the rest I need, the adventure I long for, the contentment I seek through prayer to this Jesus? Did Jesus mean to pray when he said this, or were these words for the people he was actually talking to? Has this been a verse that's been taken way out of context and applied to our human problems centuries later? Possibly.

But there's still this hole, this gaping void in the soul that knows the path of least resistance is not the right one. It's the easy one, but not the right one. I think all of us experience this at times, knowing deep inside the cores of our beings that we're being programmed for monotony and meaninglessness unless we change paths and step out into that gray area called the unknown. 

I vicariously imagine living this sort of life through film. I'll get lost in a story just so I can imagine I'm living adventurously, but when the movie's finished, it's back to the same old futility. 

I'm not saying there aren't good things going on. After all, I did get married not too long ago, and there's been one surprise after another. It's been a breath of fresh air. I feel like I have a partner, a friend, and a lover all in one. And, it takes away even more excuses of settling for less-than-best when it comes to following my passions. 

What does it look like to pursue dreams together? I don't know. We haven't tried yet. I dream big and sit in the recliner (like I am now). 

It all may look like this: If I want to find out more about the God and Jesus of the Bible, I may need to get on a different path - one that has a lot of resistance. One that doesn't have all the details lined out. One that doesn't guarantee anything except the sheer pleasure of knowing that it's not secure.

I know this has been very philosophical, but right now God and Jesus are philosophies. They're concepts to be talked about over coffee. They're not flesh and blood. I can't turn them on or off. I haven't been tapping into the only tangible evidence I have, so my spirituality has been mostly looking for profound things I can write about from the Bible. Pretty ridiculous. 

So, my prayer for me today (and you can join me if you'd like) is to take a baby step off the path of least resistance. And maybe my steps will turn to strides. And maybe my strides will turn to sprints. And maybe my discontentment will turn to joy. And maybe my doubt will turn to wholehearted belief. And maybe my skepticism will turn to trust. And maybe, I'll find God and Jesus both on the path of most resistance.