Finding Your Way Again

Where are you?

January is historically a time for fresh starts, New Year resolutions and personal inventory.

I find myself taking a personal inventory every year at this time. Typical questions are along the lines of  "What did I do last year?",  "What do I want to accomplish this year?" and "What is holding me back?"

I have noticed that most (but not all) New Year resolutions are a response to something we don't like about ourselves or our environments.

It is only natural to address shortcomings, failures and setbacks. This is the case in one of the most famous Christian stories of Scripture, the account of Adam and Eve.

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve make the worse decision of their lives. There's only 2 trees that God told them to stay away from and in direct disobedience to God, they eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil.  The story begins with Eve standing in the garden, stroking the mane of one of her pet lions, gazing at one of the trees which Adam told her was off limits because God told him not to eat from it, and not to even touch the fruit from this tree.  

She is surely wondering why?  Why this tree?  Why this fruit?  What is so special about the fruit from this tree that we can’t even touch it?  As she contemplates this question along with “Wonder what Adam wants for supper?”, in walks the serpent. The short story is that Eve messes up by eating the fruit and Adam, who is apparently along for the shopping trip at the farmer's market, also messes up when Eve passes him the fruit.

What happens next - They cover up, they try to fix it themselves, they deny the seriousness of it.

Their is this period when they are in denial.  "Maybe it's not so bad."  "Maybe I can just run away from God and hide."  "Maybe I can explain it."

But then Adam hears the sound of God.  Soon after, in a hair-raising moment, God says, "Adam, Where are you?" (Gen 3:9)

I often wonder how God felt when He called out to them? What did His cry sound like? Was it the "ADAM!" with an inflection like that of a mother that sees her child hiding after he wrote on the wall with his new crayola crayon? Or was it more of a call of desperation like that of a parent that just discovered their child missing?

I can only conclude that God is surely a just God.

So, here in the beginning of time, we see Him setting up a recovery program.

The first intervention of sorts!

And at extreme personal cost to Himself.

Maybe you are worried that you have messed up so bad that God won't use you anymore?  Are you riddled with some type of guilt?  The psalmist new this feeling when he said, "My Guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear."  Psalm 38:4 (King David)  

Wherever you are today, I have some really good news for you...God isn't through with you yet.  If you are still here, then you are still useful!  If God was finished with you, He would put you out of your misery.  But you are still breathing so you are by default still useful to God.  

You just need to Find Your Way Again!

So how do we find our way?  The next few posts will deal with how we can get back on the right path.

"What New Year Resolutions are you trying to tackle this year?"  Comment now.