A Look At Suffering - Part Three - That Darned Tree

"In the beginning..."

No need to grab your Bibles, I'm sure we all know, or at least have a fairly good idea how the beginning of Genesis reads.

Long/short of it: God makes everything, including Adam - then Eve from Adam - and then puts in this weird tree type thing.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

God grants Adam and Eve use and enjoyment of EVERYTHING, but this ONE, SINGLE, SOLITARY tree.

This is what Boyd calls The Loving Prohibition.

At first read I thought, "Whaaaaa?  How's that work?"

Thankfully Boyd explains.

At the center of the relationship with God is two-fold.  The provision and the prohibition.

The provision is pretty self explanatory.  It's the Tree of Life.  Loving fellowship with God in all it's forms.

The prohibition is a bit tricky - as the last thing WE want is to be told we CAN'T have something.

Yet, that's EXACTLY what we need.

Thankfully, again, Boyd explains.

I would guess that all of us would agree that there is a difference between God and us.  Some more obvious than others.

One of those differences, as Boyd points out, is that we ARE NOT life's "ultimate moral judges."  And for that we should be REALLY thankful - in that regard, I think we all would agree: we suck.

To be moral judges is not our role.  God didn't create us to be such.

We are to be reflections of God's heart...his love...his will - if you will.

We aren't able to do this, Boyd states, if we are trying to be like God and taking over the role of moral judges.

As Boyd says, "We simply are not equipped to make accurate and loving judgments about good and evil....Our experience and perceptions of reality are incredibly narrow....We are incapable of drawing definitive conclusions about most things, especially the state of people's hearts."

But, we didn't buy into God's way.  We bite into the fruit of the tree everyday...

If you think for a second, like I did, that you wouldn't have eaten of that tree: just remember, we do it everyday, most of the time without thinking.  Still don't believe me?  Watch how selfish you are from sunrise to sunset tomorrow.  Heck in the next five minutes!

Me?  I'm a saint! (yeah, right)

Nope, we eat of the fruit everyday...all day sometimes.

Why is this prohibition good for us?

Boyd sums it up quite brilliantly: "God wants our life to be one of receiving and giving unsurpassable love.  But this requires that we refrain from judgment."

When I read this I want to say "Amen!" and "What the heck?" at the same time.

I don't get to JUDGE people?

But it's so FUN!  I mean, there are some people that are just ASKING to be JUDGED and dang it I want to be the one to waggle my finger and JUDGE them...

But, Boyd (and God) is right...we can't truly start to love one another until we stop judging everyone.

I have to admit this is hard - heck just yesterday (though I'm sure I did it today too) I was judging someone.  I know, because I was trying NOT to.  The more I tried NOT to, the more they kept "giving" me reasons to judge them.

Boyd states that "the most important aspect of faith is our mental picture of God."

How true it is...

He then says, "Amidst the sea of ambiguity (life) we swim in, we must not relay on our own "knowledge of good and evil" to figure out what God is like and what he is up to."

So, perhaps, my view of God might not be all that I thought it was...or hoped it was...If it's so easy for me to judge others, well judging God isn't that far of a leap either.

As tasty as this fruit is...it might not be so good (or fun to eat) after all...