52, 55, 56, 57, 61, – wow, that’s not good. Do you know what those numbers are? That’s the percentage of Americans who see
the nation on the wrong track. And what’s the percentage who see it on the
right track? That percentage never gets
out of the 30s. That’s five different
polls all done in the last three weeks, all saying about the same thing.
This past week, I was listening to an interview with
the writer and priest, Richard Rohr. He
said never in his life, and he’s now in his 70s, has he run into so many, as he
described them, “eccentric, unstable, mentally unhealthy people.” Do you
know what he’s talking about? Have you
run into a few of those?
Two weeks ago, I read about a mom with a hugely successful You Tube show, 250 million view successful. She shared all the funny antics of her 7 adopted
kids. But that ended pretty abruptly. The
police discovered when the kids messed up their lines, she pepper-sprayed them. And if they still didn’t get with the
program, she locked them in a closet and starved them until they did.
It took me only a few minutes to remember those examples. If you thought about it, you could come up
with your own. What is wrong with this
world, with people? What’s wrong with
us? The answer to those questions lies in just one
question you’re about to hear. In that one question lies both the root of brokenness
and the way out. What is that
question? Here God tells you. Let’s listen and hear what God has to
say.
Do you see the first question God asks Adam and Eve? In that one question, God is giving you the
key to the brokenness and also the path back.
In case you missed the question.
Here it is. God’s asks Adam and
Eve simply this. “Where are you?” How
can that question tell you so much? To get
that, you need to understand how Adam and Eve’s answer show how broken things
have become.
Now, Adam does come out and give a somewhat honest answer. He tells God he was afraid because he was
naked. But is that really why he was
afraid? Ok, maybe on the surface. So, God digs deeper. And Adam answers by blaming Eve and God at
the same time. Then Eve blames the
serpent. And in those answers, God shows
you how badly things have gone. Do you
see why?
This week, I got a random e-mail from someone trying
to sell me something. But his pitch shared
an observation that hit me hard.
He wrote. Imagine
someone is driving home, a little drunk, from a party. He nearly runs off the road. After the close call, he realizes. He shouldn’t have had that last drink. That was foolish. He
decides. He’ll be more careful next time.
That’s nice.
But do you think he’ll follow through, that there actually won’t be a
next time? I kinda doubt it. Do you know why?
This guy might have self-awareness, but he sure isn’t
seeking self-knowledge. If he had that,
he’d be asking questions like: Why did I have that last drink? Why do I feel the need to dull my senses that
much? What is really going on with me?
Do you see the difference? Adam and Eve are self-aware, painfully
so. It’s why they cover themselves up. But they’re not willing to risk self-knowledge,
to face up to why they did eat from that tree.
They don’t really want to know where they are. In fact, their blaming shows they’ll do anything
to avoid facing that.
And why? It’s
because self-knowledge makes you really vulnerable. It requires way too much risk-taking, even with
God. And it hurts. So, Adam and Eve chicken out. They use
blame and avoidance instead. And ever
since, human beings have been making that same choice. And that choice only leads to more brokenness,
more hurt, more alienation.
Only when you risk self-knowledge with yourself and others
is the cycle broken.
The preacher Richard Exley tells about the first time,
Todd, his future son-in-law visited he and his wife. And what did he do? He humiliated his daughter. She
was fixing coffee for the family. To hold
the handle of the pot, she grabbed a kitchen towel that then caught on fire in
the burner. Richard freaked. He ripped into his daughter. “How could you be that careless? You’re lucky you didn’t burn the house down.” And it went on from there. She fled in tears up the stairs with her
mother. Richard started cleaning up the
mess. Then he decided to face the real mess. He went upstairs to his daughter. He said to her. “There was absolutely no excuse for what I
did. Please forgive me. If you’ll come
back downstairs, I will apologize to Todd as well.” And do
you know what scares me about that story?
It’s at some point, I could hurt my son like that with my anger. Heck, I already have, but they’re more
forgiving at 4. But ten years from now
or twenty and my anger hurts him, will I have the gut to face my fault and seek
forgiveness. Will he have the courage to
show me grace, as Richard’s daughter and future son-in-law did do that day?
The gutsiest thing you can be is vulnerable. In fact, the psychologist Brené Brown asked that
very question of special forces troops.
She asked. Could they think of an
example of courage that they had done or seen others do that did not require vulnerability. None of them could come up with even one example. And if anyone should know courage, it’s special
forces.
But you don’t need to look at those folks. No, just look at God. Do you see how God protects the tree of
life? He places an angel wielding a sword
to guard that tree in every direction. Yet in Jesus, God opened the way to that tree. How did God do it? God fell on the sword. God died on that sword, so the tree of life
might be yours again. And in God’s ultimate act of vulnerability, God freed you
from the fear that held Adam and Eve.
After all, why did Adam and Eve eat from the
tree? They doubted God’s love for them, that
God wanted the best for them. But when
you see how God in Jesus gave up everything to bring you home, that frees you to
be brave, to be vulnerable. It gives you
with the courage to face the pain of knowing yourself warts and all. It gives you the guts to be vulnerable to others:
to listen, to seek grace, to give it, to love even as you have been loved. And in that love, you finally know where you
are. You live in the enveloping, never
ending love of God for you. This is
where you are, where you always have been.
Do you know that? Do you?
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